Friendship Games
by AlexLoneWolf
Summary: Crystal Prep never really felt like a place to call home for a certain duo, but they never thought a meaningless competition would end up changing the way they saw the world around them. It was only a school rivalry, but it was the magic secretly hidden behind it that began the shift of every friendship, future, and even love for those involved.
1. Your Difference at Crystal Prep

It was somewhat difficult to accept the absence behind my seat.

I pedaled along the sidewalk and felt myself wear a sort of poker face, but inside, I couldn't help thinking about her. I was so used to having my back covered by her during most of the rides on my bicycle, but there was no shield this time. I knew it was only temporary, but it still felt pretty lonely when her voice wasn't there to give me something nice to listen to besides the ambience of the city streets.

It didn't take too long to reach Crystal Prep Academy, but during this one ride, it seemed as if the whole school had relocated to an even further location. I felt the need to fumble with my blazer, as it practically restricted myself from moving comfortably as I pedaled. Usually, my close companion would do me the favor of carefully holding the apparent essential part to my uniform along the ride. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, the seat behind me was empty.

I've had the bright idea of stuffing it into my bag, but never again was I willing to the take the risk of a trip down to the principal's office for a messy and wrinkled uniform. For now, I just had to deal with the fact that I had to handle things on my own. Unlike every single other student at Crystal Prep, I didn't have the luxury of riding in a spacious and air-conditioned car. I suppose that was one of the reasons why I was sort of isolated from everyone else. Well, except for a few people…

I parked my bike at the stands provided by Crystal Prep and reached for the lock from my bag. After securing it carefully, I turned and headed for the doors of the quite enormous academy. Ever since my first year, I was surprised they had bicycle stands, considering that no one here apparently would ever think about riding a bike to school.

I had arrived with about ten minutes left before classes began. I was glad that I was able to skip the cafeteria since I had breakfast before coming here. Still, it felt pretty bothering walking the halls to class on my own. Nevertheless, I reached the door to my first class, opened it, and walked inside. There were already students talking among themselves. For some reason, my body found it necessary to release a deep sign before making my way to my seat.

Once I sat, I dropped my bag and stared at the board at the front of the classroom. However, my eyes soon found themselves drifting and wandering to the seat next to me. I suppose I secretly hoped that her things would be there, but they weren't. I didn't really have a good idea when she would be back.

"Him? Really?" I heard from my left. I normally wouldn't have paid any attention, but since it sounded as if the voice was directed towards me, it would have been pretty dumb not to look back. Slightly removing my right cheek from the hand that was lazily supporting it, I turned my head towards the source of the voice. The first two students I saw were Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet. They appeared to have been talking to each other, so why did the voice sound like it was aimed at me?  
"Sure, if you like that he _only_ talks to that other one weird girl."

I didn't have the solid evidence, but the lifting of my eyebrow indicated that I had a fairly good idea of who they were talking about.

Sour Sweet sent another ugly glance at me before she realized I had been watching her for a short moment.

She immediately retracted her glare and forced out a huge grin. "Oh, good morning, Chase!" Her obvious feign of kindness was more annoying than her real personality. I could even hear the quotation marks she verbally used for my name from her greeting. After all, it was what I was called the majority of time by my absent friend.

Despite her rude actions, I remained silent. Sour Sweet didn't bother to continue facing me and see if I would actually greet her back. I turned my sight towards the girl she was making conversation with, Sunny Flare. I noticed that every now and then in their conversation, she would sent me a kind odd smile. In fact, by how long she faced me with that indulged grin, it seemed she wanted me to realize that she was looking at me in a way she'd hardly look at anyone else.

I wasn't sure how to react at this, so I decided to turn back at the board. I was never really that much of a morning person, so I decided I would take the extra few minutes to rest my eyes before the teacher arrived.

After class, I tidily slipped the carefully taken notes into my binder and dropped them into my bag. I wanted to make sure she'd understand as much as she could for the classes she had to miss today. I was sure being absent from high school was one thing, but this wasn't high school. This was practically university. Based on my sister's experience from attending university, sometimes I wondered if academics were as rigorous as the preparatory academy made them seem.

I had to admit that if there was any sense of a public school in this academy, it would probably be that classes were usually filled with the same group of people. In this case, students like Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare were in practically all of my classes. Crystal Prep was an exclusive institution for those that raised high expectations, whether purposely or not. In this school, we were seen more like a constricted group that was wired to be presented as more "talented" than others like trophies. In example, Sunny Flare, Sour Sweet, and I would be in Group A that would attend classes in a specific order. At the same time, other students in Group B would follow another schedule based on their skills and desires. The alternate schedules go for the rest of the groups attending the academy. It's a bit complicated to understand at first, but it just gets programmed into your head after living through it for a while. In fact, as long as your performance and grades are up, you really didn't have to think about it at all.

If there was any period of time I actually enjoyed at this school, it was lunch. Today especially felt suffocating with her absence, and some time at the cafeteria would allow me some room to breathe. I didn't like the idea of sitting alone at our table, but I allowed the thought of being spaced out from everyone else and having time to myself keep me up.

Before visiting the cafeteria, I stopped by my locker to drop off my bag. When my bag was in, I felt my eyes stare inside the small space of my locker for a moment. My head faced the floor in thought and then turned right to see the locker besides mine.

I was glad when she was allowed to move to the one next to mine, so we wouldn't have to separate for our things between classes. It only proved how much I enjoyed her company. As a matter of fact, I began wondering how she was doing without me.

I sighed with a touch of glum on my face before I closed the door to my personal storage space.

"What's shakin', bacon?" I heard from my left, causing me to almost jump in surprise.

I swear I didn't even need to see her face to confirm it was her.

"Faith!" My spirits soared through the roof. There was no way I could help myself. I reached for her and brought her in for a tight embrace. I was about to even lift her up slightly above the ground until I had the chance to notice disgusted and bothered stares from other students. Before any strict school staff could see us, I quickly released her while momentarily placing a hand on her shoulder. "S-sorry…" I apologized as I held a fist to my mouth while trying to keep in an embarrassed chuckle. I noticed she was wearing a side ponytail today instead of the usual hair-over-the-left-shoulder look.

Despite what happened, she giggled and appeared jubilant as a reaction to my heartwarming greeting. "Don't worry, I missed you too." She mentioned in a rather humorous and teasing manner.

"It was kind of…quiet…without you here." I tried to explain to her without getting too emotionally invested. "But you made it just in time for lunch."

"Sweet!" She expressed cheerfully and showed off her school bag a little. "My mom got us some lunch today."

"Really? That was really nice of her." I answered.

"Come on." She directed as she placed a hand on the back of my right shoulder. "Let's head into the cafeteria and eat!"

"So, how was the optometrist?" I asked as we settled ourselves in our table.

"Everything checked out great!" Faith began to fumble with the straps of her school bag. "My doctor was pretty sure I'll be seeing just fine like anyone else." She pulled out a brown paper bag from the inside of her main bag. "I also mentioned that I wasn't planning to use contacts for that one little trick I'd do to my eyes anymore."

I watched as she placed the paper bag onto the table between us and smiled warmly. "You know, I like your eyes a lot better than when you tried to hide them. They're really…attractive."

Faith stopped the movement of her hands with the paper bag to look at me with a slightly agape mouth. Blood flooded her cheeks after she had an extra moment to realize what I said. "S-s-s-stop! You're going to make me blush…"

"You already are." I laughed lightly. "And I mean it. Other people might find it weird because you're different, but I don't know. I think your mismatched eyes are really appealing. At least they're not two completely opposite colors."

After passing through the wave of embarrassment she endured, she managed to smile lightly at my heartfelt comment. "You're not any different yourself, you know."

"I know." I rested my head on my hand as the two of us continued eye contact. "Sometimes, I don't even remember that they're like that, to be honest. Unless people bring it up every second, you really get used to it."

"Yeah." She shrugged with a happy-go-lucky beam. "I guess you're right. But if you keep saying stuff like that about my eyes, I'm going to feel _really_ embarrassed."

I slightly lowered both my head and voice for what I was about to say next. "Come on. I'm sure it can never be as bad like the time when we were at the neighborhood pool and the top of your swimsuit sna—"

She immediately lurched forward and clasped her hands over my mouth. Her faced was flushed significantly more than usual. "N-n-no! S-stop! Don't remind me!" She removed her hands and began anxiously adverting her gaze away from me. Her right hand began hovering over her face as if she was trying to keep her presence unknown. "You weren't supposed to see that…"

"Okay, okay." I decided it was time to stop my friendly teasing. "Don't worry about it really. It's not like anyone else was there to see."

She felt comfortable enough to place her hand back down and look at me. "Still…" The volume of her voice lowered to where I could barely hear her. "You know how I feel about…those…"

I nodded my head. She didn't need to say anymore. "I know. Sorry about bringing it up, Faith. I thought we'd have a nice laugh about it instead."

She seemed to softly turn her frown around. "It's okay. It was still a good time anyway."

"Yeah." I turned my look towards the cafeteria floor and began thinking back to that event. "I wonder how it would have been if she had shown up like I hoped." I thought out loud as Faith had been removing several items from the paper bag sitting on the middle of the table.

"She's just really busy." Faith shared both her response and the sandwich she held in front of me. "It must be time-consuming being the top student of the whole academy." She continued as I accepted her offer. "I'm sure there'll be a time where she can hang out with us."

"I hope so." I expressed as I began to unwrap the sandwich, giving me a closer and detailed view of the lettuce dripping with sweet dressing as it poked out under the crispy toasted bread. "It looks _really_ good."

"Thank my mom!" Faith had unwrapped hers as well, and then pulled out a couple bags of chips. She slid one towards me before claiming hers.

I formed a firm grasp on my sandwich before I began lifting it up towards my mouth. Before I could take a bite, I felt an extra weight join my side of the table. Turning my head to the right, I had a front view of a pair of half-lidded eyes gazing at me. Sunny Flare greeted me with a silent but inviting look. Her head rested on the palm of her hand while her fingers curved inward close to her chin.

"…hi?" I broke the short uncomfortable silence between us.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

I took a glance at my sandwich. "Eating?" I found her behavior really odd. She had never just come up to check on me like that before.

"You know, there's an extra seat at my table. Maybe you'd like some company?"

I looked past her in the direction she came. There was one table that specifically caught my eye. Sour Sweet was sitting there observing our conversation. Despite the prickly vibes creeping up on me, I had no intention of leaving. I shot Faith a look and returned my response. "…thanks but I'm sitting with Faith right now."

Sunny Flare turned her head towards Faith. "Oh, Faith! I didn't see you in class today."

"I was…somewhere…" Faith awkwardly answered.

Sunny Flare only replied with a giggle and stood up. "I'm sure you could join me another time." She mentioned as she kept a hand on my shoulder. "It's nice seeing you, dearie!" She surprisingly ended as she began walking back to her table.

I continued observing her for a moment before I turned to Faith. I supposed I was looking for some sort of answer from her. However, Faith's eyebrows were furrowed lightly and she seemed to glare back at Sunny Flare for some reason.

"This is going to sound crazy, but…I think she…likes me?" I commented.

Faith scoffed. "You know she only likes you for your eyes, right?"

Her answer was direct and straightforward, which was actually pretty rare from her. In fact, I believed she only ever acted this way when she was pretty dead serious.

"Huh?"

"She wants to date you because of your eyes." Faith proceeded to explain. "I heard her talking about it with Sour Sweet in the locker room yesterday. She didn't specifically mention you, but she was talking about dating someone that would attract attention to her. I noticed she glanced at me and then began talking about how someone having eyes like mine would fit the bill." Faith motioned the wrist of her right hand in a circle. "Said something like it would go with her style of fashion and a bunch of other ridiculous things."

"Hm." I honestly wasn't really hurt by that. It's not like I had a thing for her to begin with anyway. I folded my hand into a fist and rested my cheek on it. "Who knows? Maybe I'll still take her up on her offer anyway. I have zero experience with romance, and it doesn't seem like anyone else is interested in me…" I crossed my arms and looked to the side, feeling a bit upset to be sharing that.

"Are you kidding?!" Faith looked like she could slam the table with her hands. "There's no way I'm going to let you date someone like that! It doesn't matter even if you don't care about her. Nothing good will come out of wasting your time with someone like that!"

My eyes widened at Faith's outburst. That was something I had never really seen, most likely due to the fact that I had never really considered dating someone she didn't approve of.

She took note of my reaction and sighed, calming herself down.

"I'm sorry. It's just…I don't want to see anything bad happen to you. I just have a bad feeling if you're with someone like that. Like, what if she treats you like her dog, and if she doesn't get what she wants, she'll punish you by spreading rumors or something? I just don't like the possibility of something like that happening. To be honest…" Faith moved her right hand and wrapped her fingers around her left arm. "I'd rather want us to date each other… At least then I'd know you'd be with someone who cares about you and not with someone who would just use you."

My heart skipped a beat in surprise, and I remained sitting there frozen in shock.

Now THAT was something I had never heard from her before, despite how long we've been with each other as friends. But why did it seem to be out of place? The idea of dating Faith never seemed to have crossed my mind before, and it felt like it didn't cross hers either. It's not like I didn't _want_ to date her, but it was more like I was absolutely fine with what I already had with her.

I rested my arms on top of the table. My sandwich still remained unbitten.

"Can I ask you something, Faith?"

She lifted her head from the floor pretty quickly. "W-What?"

"I'm being pretty serious now. We're so close. It's almost like I can read your thoughts. So, I'm just wondering…why haven't we been doing that?"

"Y-y-you mean dating?" She was starting to sound like she regretted bringing it up in the first place.

"Well, yeah. Serious question. I'm just curious."

"I-I don't know." She repeatedly poked her sandwich with her finger. "Maybe because we're such close friends that it'd be weird if we started seeing each other like that?"

"Would it?" I questioned, unsure of such an idea.

Faith merely shrugged and adverted her gaze while holding a light blush. "I can't say that I've thought about it. Maybe I'm just scared if that _did_ happen, we would grow apart some way, believe it or not." She lowered the lids of her eyes quietly for a few seconds before she shook her head almost vigorously and turned back to me. "But either way, I'd rather want you to go out with me than _her_!"

Faith was starting to get a little loud from where I was at. I uneasily looked around for any unwanted attention before getting back to her. "Okay, okay, I get it. I won't go out with her."

She sighed and stared down at her skirt. "I don't mean to be bossy… It's just… I liked a guy once…and you know how that turned out."

I remembered almost every word of the story she had to build up the courage to tell me.

"Yeah."

She seemed to have forgotten the existence of her sandwich after succumbing to the effects of a depressed state of mind. I felt really guilty. Ever since her return today, I was practically the one who got her feeling down, and I was the one who was supposed to keep her happy.

I'm her best and closest friend. It's my job.

"Can I see your hand?" I asked. She looked a little confused, but she brought out her hand on the table. I lightly held a firm grip of her hand and returned serious empathetic look. She stared back at me with the same questioning expression for a silent while. Then, I lightly raised the corners of my lips and told her an unexpected statement. "Your sandwich is going to get cold."

That caused her to be even more lost and confused. Finally, she spurted out a few chuckles and formed the smile I wanted to see. "You're so stupid."

"Not really." I playfully acted smart. "Lunch will be over pretty soon."

We finished our meals with minutes to spare and returned to class. The difference between atmospheres was so clear to see when Faith was back in the classroom.

It was weird.

I suppose the best way to describe it was class was pretty gray when she wasn't around. However, as soon as she came back, she brought life back inside along with her. In other words, I say she gave me a reason for being in there.

Nevertheless, I had to admit I was ready to go home once the end of the school day was near.

I still had to go through the physical education regimen that was implanted in our curriculum. Normal schools would call it simply P.E. though. Fortunately, I had Faith for that period too, and I was especially glad when we wouldn't be separated based on gender. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get along with the other guys since most of the guys here were just as stuck-up as the girls were.

Faith joined me back on the field with her hands behind her back and a warm smile glued to her face. I wasn't exactly sure of her standpoint on sports or physical activity, but she seemed to enjoy it when she was with me.

"Get your gears together. We're starting with short-burst sprints." The coach announced directly, offering not even a second or two for a greeting.

That was the norm for not only the students.

He blew his whistle, leading us to take our runner's positions.

Faith's eyes darted over to me as she released a devious smirk. I could almost feel a telepathic message being shot into my mind.

 _Wanna race?_

I sent her the same look.

If you think you can keep up.

The coach blew his whistle, causing us to get a move on.

We continued these short-burst sprints several times, running back and forth on the field. Sometime later, the coach blew his whistle loudly once more and shouted his next objective.

"Down on the ground. Push-ups, go!"

I could hear myself beginning to run out of breath. Faith stopped beside me, releasing a few grunts of fatigue. Nevertheless, we both positioned ourselves on the ground and followed the sound of the coach's whistle in the time we'd perform the push-up. The time between each blow was about a second. Fortunately, the long whistle came in soon, allowing us to stop.

We had about a few seconds to rest before we moved onto crunches.

"I'll go first." I told Faith as I began to lie myself on the grass. I wanted her to have a longer break.

"Oh, you're so sweet." She teasingly shared as she knelt on the ground to bend over and hold her hands on my shoes. This, of course, was to keep my feet from rising up as I performed the exercise.

I attempted to get a little comfortable and placed the back of my hands behind my head. After a few seconds, I began working my upper body to reach my bent knees as much as I could. Faith smiled cheerfully as we both kept eye contact towards one another. I found this silly for some reason, and she made want to smile and laugh in reaction. But it was a little hard to do just that in the middle of exerting such energy through physical exercises.

I tried keeping my breathing intact, but I wasn't so great at keeping a perfect rhythm. This, in turn, caused me to lose seconds of uninterrupted exertion, but it was enough to last through.

"It's okay. You're doing great." Faith shared, working her natural position as my motivator.

I wanted to respond back to her, but I could only do that if I was resting. The most I could pull out was a grunt and a nod before I pressed on.

What I'd give to have a break right now…

"… _ **BEING QUIET!**_ " An unexpected and absolutely tremendously loud voice screeched out from the bushes near us.

All of us froze at what we were doing to stare back at this one girl with rainbow-colored hair standing out in front of us. The coach had seen this girl for himself and he did not look happy. To be fair, he never really did to begin with.

This unknown girl noticed our eyes on her and grinned nervously before a bush beside her began speaking to her. "Bush to Dash. Code red. You have been spotted." Immediately after, this pink-haired girl jumped out and ran in a flash like a bolt of lightning. "RUUUUUUUUUUUNNN!"

The one who originally shouted glanced back at us one last time before she took off with the other. We continued observing them run down the parking lot near the field. At the moment, for some reason, it seemed like I had seen them before. Despite the majority of us questioning what had just happened, the coach turned back to us and blew his whistle.

"Back to work."

At the end of the period, Faith laid exhaustedly on the grass, heavily breathing for a moment. I stayed by her side, recuperating in almost the same manner. Our coach had dismissed and left us to return back to the locker room. He didn't have to supervise us anymore since we had already reached the end of the school day, and we were technically already free to leave the premises.

"Man…" Faith tried to speak once regaining her breath. "You know…I really wish we'd be able to do whatever we wanted this period as long as we exercised from it. It's totes lame to have to be all formal even for P.E."

"Well, that's Crystal Prep for you." I responded, feeling good enough to walk. "It's not about what the students want. It's what benefits the school more."

"That's pretty depressing to hear…" She answered a little sadly.

"After meeting Principal Cinch, it's pretty much obvious." I recalled one of my first experiences with her. It wasn't exactly pleasant.

"I guess you're right." Faith had her share of her experiences. She had gotten in trouble at times when a little of her mid-riff would show, due to the fact that the size she wore was around youth large. In fact, I was able to see her belly button at the moment she was lying down, but no one really cared in this period. Everyone else was too busy with their exercises to bother looking at anyone else. "I can't wait to go _hoooome_." She shared with a small groan.

I smiled a little and stood up as I stretched out my hand to her. She noticed it fairly quickly and returned a warm smile back when accepting it. I helped her up and offered my back to carry her to her side of the locker rooms. She seemed to usually love the ride, so she didn't hesitate to jump on.

We had to separate momentarily to change back into our uniforms, but we reconvened with each after several minutes, ready to go home. However, before we left the area, I noticed Sunny Flare leaving with Sour Sweet. Sunny Flare glanced over to me and threw an alluring smile as she waved lightly.

I had to admit it… After Faith told me about her true intentions, the smallest part of me sort of resented Sunny Flare for it. Nevertheless, Faith at my side had me feeling mainly uncaring.

Paying attention to Sunny Flare in the moment, I hardly noticed Sour Sweet's intense glare shooting bullets at me. When I switched my eyes to her, she immediately pulled it back and sent a fake friendly beaming face.

When they were far away enough, I turned to Faith. "She say anything about me in there today?"

"Just some stupid stuff you really don't need to know." Faith kept it short and sweet. "Just make sure you don't fall for her dumb tricks. She thinks she can make any guy do what she wants because of them. You're way too good for that."

My heart felt touched when she mentioned that last part, despite the bothered look on her face.

"That's why I have you, isn't it?" I smiled and messed with the top of her hair a little.

I began walking, leaving her standing with a slight redness that overcame her face.

"Why do you have to do such embarrassing things to me?" She asked almost timidly as she jogged shortly to catch up.

"Because it's fun." I chuckled lightly, looking forward in the direction of the entrance/exit of the school grounds. "Plus, your reactions are so cute."

Faith immediately adverted her eyes away from me in embarrassment. "Th-there you go again!"

"Haha." I returned. "Faith, if you knew how you looked like right now in my shoes, you'd see why it's so great for me."

She sighed loudly. "I would think, being with you for so long, I'd be used to this."

"Then you wouldn't be as much of the real you." I stated rather a little confusingly.

"Huh?" Her eyebrow raised to prove as such.

"Nothing." I contently left it at that.

We made it to the front where my bike was visible.

"Where were we again?" Faith questioned as she tried to recall what we had been talking about to begin with. "Oh yeah. Like I said. Don't fall her tricks. After all, it's…that one person you know I'm talking about that you have something for, right?

"Yep…" I reached for my bike and began messing with the lock. "But it's kind of hard to get anywhere with her when it seems like she hardly notices you…"

"I know what you mean…" Faith continued as she watched me with her hands behind her back. "But maybe you shouldn't take it so personally. She's kind of like that with everyone. I mean, she _does_ lock herself up in that room. I don't even think she even goes to any classes."

"Doesn't surprise me." I unlocked the lock and began stuffing it in my bag. "She must had taken some tests to skip all the other classes. I mean, I haven't seen her with me in class after our second year."

"Hmm." Faith placed a finger to her lips. "If she skipped all those classes, then why is she still here? Wouldn't she have graduated already? Maybe she's in some kind of program or has some kind of special advantage where she doesn't even need to show up for lectures. Maybe she knows so much that she just has to take the test and _bam_. All the free time in the world."

"Yeah. That sounds more like it actually." I remained standing near my bike while holding my hands on the handlebars.

"Isn't that how real university is?" Faith added.

"I think so. My sister's told me that apparently people don't even need to show up for lectures. As long as they know their stuff somehow, they can just take the tests and eventually pass the class."

"I guess that explains it." Faith moved her hands to her hips. "Hold on a second… Is that the _real_ reason you like her?" She crossed her arms and sort of gave a disapproving and perhaps even jealous frown. "Because she's smart…?"

"N-no!" The way she said that made me sound like I only wanted to take advantage of Twilight. "I told you, haven't I?" I sighed and looked away in reminiscence. "Ever since our first year…she was the only person I thought I could connect with at first. No one really talked to her. In fact, everyone seemed to be so jealous that they actually didn't like her. I can relate to that because no one really talked or liked me too. At first…I kind of just had interest in being her friend…but ever since we unintentionally got paired up one day…I sort of wanted more…" I shook my head, feeling like this was no place to talk about things like this. "I don't know. Let's just go home, I guess."

"Chase?" I heard another voice suddenly protrude through the silence around us.

I turned to see the subject of our conversation right there on the school steps.

No way?! Had she been listening the whole time?! Did she know!? This wasn't the way I wanted it to be done!

"T-T-Twilight!?" I could feel myself frantically stuttering. "I-I didn't see you there!"

"I'm sorry to bother you." She began walking towards me, surprisingly wearing something completely opposite from her uniform. She wore a pullover hoodie with jeans and sneakers. How did she get past the dress code? Then again…she _was_ the top student, so maybe she was able to get away with a few things… She approached me and began making me feel nervous. "You see… I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor."

Judging from her request, it seemed she hadn't heard me at all, and if she did, she had no idea who I was talking about. Or maybe she just didn't care…

"Y-yeah!" I almost immediately responded. "What do you need?"

"Can you take me out of the city really quick?"

Her question surprised me. I glanced over to Faith to see that she hadn't been expecting such a request either.

"What for?" I followed up with a question.

She pulled up some device with antennas. "It's…for some research." She looked back up to me with a pleading face. "I promise you it won't be long. I just need to check out something. It won't take more than a few minutes there."

I sighed.

To be honest, I didn't want to deny this request, but I definitely would feel bad if I just left Faith waiting here for me to get back. I supposed I would ask Faith, and if she wasn't okay with it, I'd just have to suck it up and sadly decline.

"Faith?" I turned to her. "Do you think you can wait for me? I don't think I'll be longer than thirty minutes."

"Sure…" She strained that word a bit as she lightly bent over with her hands behind her back in curiosity. "I can probably get some schoolwork done or something…"

"Oh…!" I immediately remembered. I pulled the notes out of my bag and stretched them out to her. "I took these for you while you were absent."

"Oh, geez, really?!" It was as if she actually believed that I wouldn't go to such lengths for her. She politely accepted them and thanked me as she skimmed them through. "Thanks! I'll just look these over while you're gone."

I nodded. "I'll be back as soon as I can." I turned to Twilight. "Alright. Let's go."

Faith waved goodbye to us as we exited out of the school yard on my bicycle. Twilight had ridden with me a few times in the past, so she didn't have much trouble with holding on to me. I can't lie and say that I didn't enjoy Twilight's semi-embrace though…

"So where are we going?" I asked.

Twilight used one hand to pull the hoodie over her head. "Canterlot High School."

Canterlot High School. I've heard that name before. In fact, I believe that was where I would have been had I denied my acceptance into Crystal Prep. But it wasn't just that… There was something else I've heard about that place…but I couldn't recall exactly what it was.

"Huh?" I questioned, wanting to look back but couldn't because of my current cycling. "Why there?"

"There's something about that school I need to see for myself." She returned.

Right. I remember her mentioning something like that before. However, when I remembered how she dressed herself for this visit, I couldn't help but ask another question in concern.

"You're not going to do anything bad, are you?"

"Of course not." Twilight assured. "But I can't let them know who I am or where I'm from. If they know I'm from Crystal Prep, I'm sure they'll think I'm up to no good."

Looking shady doesn't exactly help either…

"What about me? I'm in my uniform." I brought up.

"Don't worry. I just need you to drop me off at the side of the street, wait for a little moment while I gather my data, and then we'll head back after."

"Okay…" You're the genius after all.

The school was in clear view as I arrived on the other side of the street.

Twilight patted my shoulders. "Okay, stop here." I braked and placed a foot on the side of the bicycle as Twilight appeared to look around. "Doesn't seem like anyone's around. Understandable since it should be after school hours."

"What now?" I asked.

"Wait here." She directed as she carefully stepped off the bike. "I'll only be a few minutes."

"Be careful." I advised as she looked both ways before crossing the street.

Once she was on the other side, I noticed her pull out the device she had shown me earlier. From there, she began heading towards the statue of the mascot that was presented in front of the school. I decided to take a look around me to make sure there was no one specifically eyeing us, but it was pretty clear. I turned back to Twilight to observe her waving her device around the statue for some reason. I couldn't come up with a single idea on why she would be so focused on that one thing, but I couldn't question it as my IQ was nowhere near as high as hers.

Eventually, she went around the statue to possibly investigate it more. This made me more nervous, but I couldn't catch her attention. She disappeared from my sight, and I was pretty sure that if anyone was at least at the front doors inside the school, they would probably see her.

I remained staring at the direction she disappeared at until I heard a faint yell or call. My body lightly hovered over and my hands tightened at the handles.

" _Wait! Stop!"_ I heard an unknown voice.

Most importantly, I noticed Twilight running straight back towards me. There was somebody else chasing her. I immediately readied myself to pedal out of there as soon as Twilight boarded on. Fortunately, but extremely dangerously as well, Twilight ran across the road, having this person chasing her stop due to a passing car.

Twilight hopped on as quickly as she could and immediately tightened her arms around my waist. "Go, go!"

I did and pedaled as fast as I could. As I began leaving, I saw this girl run across the road, but we had already separated far enough for her to find it bothersome to chase after us any longer.

"Are we clear?" I asked Twilight to clarify.

She looked back and sighed. Afterwards, she removed her hood off her head. "We're fine."

Arriving back at Crystal Prep, I could see Faith loyally remaining at the steps looking over her notes. She didn't seem to notice our arrival yet.

"Thanks a lot, Chase." Twilight expressed, preparing to step off. "I didn't get everything I was hoping to get, but I have a better idea on what I'm looking for."

"Okay…" I merely stated as I began to see her prepare to leave. "What are you going to do now?"

"I'm going to get back to work on this." She turned her body towards the school but sent a little wave back to me. "Thank you for taking the time to assist me."

"Well…I—" I churned out. I wanted to say something, but I had no idea what to say. Either way, I stopped in my efforts when I noticed her returning to the front doors of the school. As she walked past the steps, Faith heard and noticed her. They didn't make any conversation though. Instead, Faith turned to me and immediately packed up her things to jog over to where I was stationed.

I sighed pretty heavily before she reached me.

"How'd it go?" She questioned with a somewhat confident smile.

"Meh." I effortlessly answered. "It was just whatever, I guess."

"That doesn't sound good." Faith frowned.

"I mean…it's not like it went _bad_." I rubbed the back of my head. "It's just…you know…nothing different."

"Sorry to hear that…" Faith seemed like she understood my feelings on the matter.

"It doesn't matter." I closed. "Come on, let's head home."

Once Faith climbed on and secured herself, I began biking us home.

* * *

When we arrived at the end of the neighborhood where she lived, Faith stepped off and turned towards me with both a warm grin on her face and a question in her mind. "Hey, do you want to come over for a bit?"

Spending time with each other off campus was very common with Faith and me. This included spending time at each other's houses. However, usually I preferred being at Faith's house instead of mine. My parents were just too touchy on the relationship Faith and I had. We lived in the same neighborhood with a few houses between us, so we saw each other very often.

It wasn't rare for Faith's mom to spend her time at her work late until the night. Normally, she comes back home a few hours after Faith does in the weekday. It's actually one of the reasons why I started taking Faith home myself. Another is that we pretty much live in the same place. Referring back to her mom, I actually felt bad for both her and Faith. Faith's mom is really sweet, and it makes me think that I'm actually a lot closer to her than I am with my own parents. Sometimes, I find myself thinking that she deserves more than she has to do with, especially due to the fact that she's the only parent Faith has.

Faith has had to spend many weekday evenings home alone because of her mother's schedule. Surprisingly, she's managed to distract herself with her interests such as music and video games. However, there have been times where she's called me up to ask if I wanted to come over. To be honest, staying at Faith's was a lot better than being at my own home was. Even though it wasn't too far away, it sort of felt like a place to escape certain things and just be in each other's presence in peace.

"Yeah, sure." I answered with a smile of my own and followed her on her driveway.

I stationed my bike in her garage and followed her through the front door.

After she closed the door, she released a huge and loud sigh. " _Gaaaaahhh! Finally home!_ " She exclaimed with arms stretching out wide. Afterwards, she removed her formal shoes and threw them lightly against the wall. I decided to remove mine as well, but I placed them gently to the side instead. I didn't want Grinch getting after any little spots or scratches on my shoes.

She walked towards the stairs with her socks, already beginning to remove her blazer. As I followed her up the stairs, I could only wonder if Faith acted the same way when I wasn't around her. She opened the door to her room and switched the lights on. I closed it for her and decided I could remove my blazer as well. I didn't want to feel like I was at a ball twenty-four seven, and it was annoying enough to wear the majority of the day. I hung it somewhere secure in her room and looked towards her as she headed for her dresser.

"Mind if I lie on your bed?"

"Of course not." She responded as she removed her tie.

I allowed myself to fall on the comfy sheets of her bed and closed my eyes.

Lying there felt so good. It was like jumping into a pool of pillows…I think.

Either way, with the darkness enveloped in front of my eyes, I began thinking about Twilight. I started to wonder if we sort of drifted apart after we didn't see each other so much anymore. We were never close to begin with, but I knew that we'd at least talk somewhat. Nevertheless, as much as I tried, I couldn't really get her out of her work in school. Honestly, I wanted the best for her, but I was starting to feel a little hurt thinking that she finds her work more important than her friends. Well…that's if she even considers us as friends…

I suddenly felt another bundle of weight drop near me. I opened my eyes and spotted Faith by my side, staring at the ceiling with a bright beam. She apparently had changed into a lightly loose long sleeve shirt sporting an illustrated image of a delicious doughnut on the center. She also wore comfortable short shorts.

I found myself noticing the small pile of clothes on the floor near her bed. It was the uniform she had been wearing just a little while ago.

"You should probably take better care of your uniform." I advised, specifically referring to that one person. "You don't want her to catch something off with it."

"Eh. I think she has more important things to worry about than clothes." She replied, sparing hardly a care in the world.

"Well, then be careful when you're 'representing' the school." I laid my head back on the bed and eyed the ceiling with her. The Grinch was _always_ crazy about "reputation". You'd think she literally feeds off that stuff.

Faith launched her upper body up from her bed and turned to face me. "So, what do you want to do? Some gaming? Movie? Videos on my laptop?"

"I'm fine with whatever, really."

She stood up and thought. "Hm…" She didn't look like she could come up with a straight answer. "How about we just start with my laptop?" She sent a glance with a smile back and reached for her computer.

We sat on her bed as she held the laptop in front of us. On the top list of her bookmarked sites was the most popular video sharing website. She clicked on it and the homepage revealed many of the videos she liked to watch. This included information on soon to-be-released video games, adorable animals, and generally funny clips.

We started browsing different videos, sharing some laughs at hilarious compilations. At one point, we found a video with an eye-catching title in the related videos section.

 _Thief caught red-handed!_

"What's this one?" I pointed it out.

Based on the thumbnail, I was curious to watch it.

Faith stared at it for a second in silence before she hovered her mouse over it and clicked it.

" _You were trying to swipe some of the cupcakes and you know it!"_ I heard a voice from the video. It looked like it was being recorded from a phone, and the person hadn't had the subject in the frame yet until after this sentence was spoken.

" _Wha- No, I wasn't!"_ A girl with a very distinguishable and familiar voice cried out.

These two girls had been sharing some kind of tense conversation with each other in front of a crowd that had gathered. What shocked me more was the one being accused. Her clothes had been ruined by what looked like frosting and pieces of cake. Behind her was a stand for a baking club, and on the stand looked to be demolished and squashed cakes.

" _Look at yourself! There's no lying out of this one!"_ The girl pointing the finger shouted. This girl looked familiar as well.

A couple of girls had come running onto the stand. They noticed the state it was in and turned to the accused in shock. _"…what were you thinking, Faith?!"_

Faith beside me immediately gasped sharply.

" _I swear, I—"_

The laptop in front of us shut immediately. A hand was planted stilly on the top and I traced it back to Faith. She had been staring aimlessly with tears welling in her eyes.

"Faith." I tried to call her, shocked by my sudden realization of what I saw.

"Oh my gosh…" She slipped out in horror.

"Faith!" I called again and placed a hand on her shoulder.

She lightly cried out and forcefully turned away from me. She brought her knees closer to her head and buried her face on them. "I can't believe it…!" She began to sob.

"Faith…" I said once more, remembering something like this being told to me before. "…was that…?"

"I didn't do it!" She shook her head fiercely. "It was her! It was _all_ her! She lied and got the whole school to hate me!"

I've heard this before. It was the main reason Faith transferred schools and moved to Crystal Prep. It was a story that took an immense amount of courage for her to recall. Back when she was a freshman, she used to be a part of the baking club. In fact, I think she had joined the first day of high school. She had told me that she was given the responsibility to watch and take over the bake sale the club was having for this Freshman Fair thing at their school. One girl she thought she was friends with practically ruined her life when she pulled a little stunt to frame Faith as a thief. I guess that one girl was the one accusing Faith.

Faith continued crying at the side of her bed.

I couldn't imagine the pain she was feeling during the moment. How was I going to help fix this?!

Moving to her side was the only thing I could think of doing. She tried to hold back sobs, but I could feel they were really difficult to keep to herself.

"I had no idea… I didn't know…anyone on the internet could see this…" She quietly shared.

"I'm sorry, Faith." I apologized with an immense amount of guilt on my shoulders. "It was my fault. I shouldn't have pointed that video out."

She shook her head and tried to wipe tears from her face. "I thought I was finally over this."

"I know it's hard to believe, but it looked like it was posted around the time you were still at that school. Maybe it's old news now."

"You really think so…?"

I didn't want to lie to her. "Well, I don't know. I can check the comments or something…" I was about to open the laptop up until Faith placed her hand on mine to stop me.

"No. Just…leave it alone. I don't want to risk feeling any worse."

"Right…" I agreed. I couldn't imagine how much more horrible Faith would feel if everyone in the comment section was hating her for looking like a guilty thief in the video. Nevertheless, I felt the intense need to watch the rest of the video myself. As bad as it looked, I sort of felt like it was my duty to see exactly what happened and who was responsible for the mess, but I would have to do that when Faith couldn't see.

Faith remained silent for a moment before she slightly turned to me. "I feel bad for asking this but…do you think you can stay over tonight?"

"Of course." I responded, willing to do anything to cheer her up.

"Thanks…" She expressed and sighed. "I'm going to need one heck of a distraction to get my mind off of this."

* * *

I supposed things began looking up once Faith's mom arrived home. She made us dinner and Faith fortunately seemed to keep her mind busy when conversing with her mother. However, it began becoming a little difficult for me when it was time for sleep.

I wasn't sure if it was as difficult as I thought it would be, but I tried to keep Faith from remembering or even mentioning about what had happened with the video. I suggested that we watch some TV, but I couldn't help but continue worrying over Faith every time something on the television came up that could possibly remind Faith of the video.

When she was tired enough, she retreated to her bed and laid there. She kept her hand on her stomach and focused her eyes on her ceiling. It was pretty obvious that she was stuck in thought, and I had a bad feeling it was about the video. If she wasn't being cheery, something was definitely bothering her.

I decided to sit by her side and keep her company. She noticed my presence and lightly snapped out of her thoughts to look at me.

"You going to go to sleep?" I asked.

"Oh, right. Sorry…" She lifted up the hand on her stomach and looked at it momentarily. Then, she turned to me. "Is it okay if you hold my hand until I fall asleep? I just need to know you're there when I close my eyes…"

"Yeah, sure." I went ahead and lightly grabbed her hand.

"Thanks, Chase." She released a deep breath and closed her eyes.

I had no intention of falling asleep. Not until I got something done first.

I waited until Faith seemed to follow a rhythmic breathing pattern before I carefully released her hand. I picked up the covers at the end of her bed and dragged them along to tuck her in. Once she looked comfortable, I quietly walked over to the table her laptop was on and opened it. I inserted a plug onto the side of the laptop and placed on a pair of headphones.

The video was still at the same spot, and all I had to do was press play…

I hovered the mouse over the video, but I began growing nervous. Just the thought of seeing Faith in a completely vulnerable state almost made me sick. I really didn't want to watch it, but I felt the need to know what exactly happened and who caused this to her. I took a deep breath and just forced myself to click the button.

"… _I didn't do anything!"_ Faith seemed to fumble with her words. It sounded like she was pretty in shock herself. _"S-Sunset Shimmer! You were the one pushed me onto the cakes! Why would you do that and lie about me stealing?!"_

Sunset Shimmer…

The accuser scoffed.

" _Do you hear that, everyone? She's trying to pin the blame on me now! You're not going to just believe her even though the proof is right in the pudding, are you?"_ Sunset Shimmer talked to the crowd.

People began to mutter amongst themselves and Faith helplessly turned her eyes to several people in the crowd. Then, she turned to those who ran in during the middle of the scene. I believed they were a part of her baking club. _"You girls have to believe me! I would never do anything like this! I don't ever steal!"_

" _You're lucky I was here to stop her, you know."_ The one called Sunset Shimmer crossed her arms and conceitedly looked at the two girls Faith was trying to convince.

They looked at each other and appeared to be speechless. Finally, one of them managed to say a few words, but they didn't make anything better.

" _I think you should go, Faith…"_

Faith looked completely heartbroken. _"B-b-but…"_ She absolutely wanted to speak. She was in desperate need to say anything that would make things just like they were before. However, unless she had some kind magic, there was no way everything could turn back to normal after that. Eventually, Faith ran out of the scene and away from the camera.

Before the video could finish, I paused when I had a clear view of this "Sunset Shimmer". Her hair was a mixture of red and yellow, and it was just one of the things that appeared to have her stand out. I studied her appearance for a moment and thought to myself as my eyebrows furrowed.

If I find her…what am I going to do?

There were so many things I wanted to do, but they weren't effective ways of dealing with the situation. I needed to find a way to expose her for the kind of cold-hearted person she was, but that was if I even met her. However, the main thing I'd want is to show how that scene was a lie, and that Faith had never done any wrong.

Either way, I'll be remembering that name.

Sunset Shimmer.


	2. The Friendship Games

**Note: To the one who has been constantly spamming the review section for not only this story, but others that have been recently updated as well, you need to learn to stop. Seriously. I don't know what makes you constantly post summaries and synopsis for upcoming MLP content, but I'll tell you right now that if you think it makes me work on my updates any faster, it doesn't. In fact, it does quite the opposite. This isn't the first time that not only I, but many others, have told you to quit filling up the review section with unnecessary things, and I hope this is the last time I'll have to bring it up.**

 **MegaAsh1537: I'm leaning towards new OCs.**

 **Foreststar of WindClan: I wouldn't say he's necessarily "human Alex" in a cut and dry fashion. It's kind of a complex thing to explain. Anyways, about his family, I want to say that, no, he's not adopted. His family is really his family. As for Vice Principal Luna, I'm not so sure she'd have a son to begin with lol. In this story, at least, she doesn't. An important thing to keep in mind is that there originally wasn't any magic in the human world, so in theory, there would be no "human Alex", if you get what I'm trying to say?**

* * *

"Chase, Chase, wake up." I heard a quiet call.

My eyes slowly opened and began to clear up until I was able to see Faith in front of a sunrise background. I wasn't going to lie; I really felt like just knocking right back out there, but Faith reminded me the reason to get up.

"You gotta get ready, so we can have breakfast before we head out."

I unenthusiastically forced myself to sit up and turn to the side of the bed. I tried rubbing my eyes for any helpful effect. Faith looked like she was already dressed up aside from the blazer that remained hanging nearby. She lightly bent over towards me with hands behind her back and offered a warm smile. "I'm sorry. I totes forgot about your uniform. Do you want to go home and shower, so you can change into a fresh one?"

I thought for a moment, not feeling the energy to go back home to shower and change to only come back here again. However, the fact was that I hadn't taken a shower, so it was probably best that I did.

"Yeah, sure…" I responded as I got up from her bed.

"I'll make sure there's some breakfast for you when you get back!" Faith promised as she followed me out of her room.

I walked down the steps and began to make my way past the kitchen until I heard another voice greet us.

"Good morning, you two." I turned to see Faith's mom looking through the fridge and pulling out ingredients for the breakfast of the day. "You're up earlier than usual."

I checked my phone and realized we were up around thirty minutes earlier.

"I decided I should wake Chase up earlier." Faith explained. "I almost forgot that he doesn't have an extra pair of his uniform here, so he's going to go shower, change, and come back here for some yum yums."

"That's thoughtful of you." Her mother praised her and then turned to me. "Come back as soon as you can, you're going to want your meal to be fresh off the pan." She advised.

"Will do." I performed a little salute with my index and middle finger.

"I'll help!" Faith excitedly jogged over to her mother. "See you in a few, Chase!" She turned back to me before I nodded and left.

That extra time did certainly come to use when showering and changing into my new uniform. As I made my way back to Faith's, I felt a little more refreshed, and the shower helped in waking me up. All I had to do was endure another day of Crystal Prep, but I was sure Faith would help me last.

As I entered back into her house, I could smell an alluring sensation that my nose quickly accepted. My stomach rumbled, and I knew I was ready to chow down. I helplessly made a brisk move towards the kitchen to see what was cooking. Faith's mom appeared to be finishing up some things on the stove while Faith carefully sliced oranges.

I heard myself groan in delight inside my mind. If I had allowed that sound to escape, I'd be facing days of embarrassment. Breakfast with Faith was one of the reasons I could last getting up so early. It was just another one of those experiences that filled parts of my heart that originally felt empty. Before I met Faith, I had to have breakfast at the school, and it could never be half as enjoyable as having it with my amazing neighbors here.

Faith's mom noticed me standing near the doorway in awe and lightly smirked. "Go ahead and take a seat, Chase. Breakfast will be coming right up."

"You guys are too nice, you know?" I felt the need to comment as I sat down at the table.

"What can we say?" She began serving eggs and hash browns on a plate. "We're like family." She turned over to Faith. "Faith, honey, can you pour the juice for us, please?"

"'Course!" She happily acknowledged.

Good. It looked like that video was off her mind. I could only hope it stayed off. Honestly, the more I saw her, the more I could bet that she would never do a thing like steal. She was just way too sweet for that.

Once preparations were complete, the plates were served on the dining table, and Faith carefully placed the glasses of juice near the dishes to accompany them. When the two of them sat down with me, the three of us gave thanks for our food and began to delightfully enjoy it.

I glanced over to Faith's mom and couldn't help but worry a bit. "I hope you didn't get anything on your suit."

She looked like she appreciated the concern. "Don't worry. I think I've learned enough to keep the food where it's supposed to be."

"Still, I can't help but feel a little bad for the hours you have to work as a real estate receptionist. It must be tiring during the weekdays."

"It can be. But really, you do more than enough favors by taking care of Faith. It makes me feel a lot more relaxed that she's riding home with you than walking the entire way herself."

"If it makes it easier on you, mom, then I'm super glad. I'd want you to focus more on your job than me. Well…you know…you can focus on me when you're not busy with your job…" Faith adverted her eyes to the side in embarrassment as she just revealed a little of the "momma's girl" inside.

Her mom chuckled in joy. "Don't worry. You'll always be my little girl, Faith."

"Hehe." Faith giggled.

It was cute to see them acting like this. Sometimes, I even felt a little jealous, but my feelings were more preoccupied with the fun I had with them to let it get to me in a negative manner.

After her mother was finished with breakfast, she checked her watch and began to excuse herself. "I better get going. Can you wash the dishes for me, Faith?"

"Not a problem." Faith replied with a smile as she watched her mother walk around the table to reach out.

"Thank you very much." She placed a hand on Faith's hair and lightly planted an affectionate kiss on her temple. "Have a good day at school." She turned to me as she began walking out, her high heels tapping clearly on the wooden floor. "Bye, Chase."

"Bye!" I waved back as I observed her leave through the front door.

Soon enough, we could hear the car start and drive off.

"I don't know if you've noticed yet, but…" Faith spoke, turning my head back to her. "My mom really likes you, you know? I swear, if you didn't already have a family, she would adopt you in an instant."

It almost made my day when I heard that. I knew she liked me in the sense that I was really a part of her family, and I knew she trusted me well enough to stay with and watch over Faith. But when I heard about being adopted, I couldn't lie and say it didn't sound like a good idea. "Maybe I can get my parents to disown me and your mom can go ahead and do that." I joked with a little laugh.

Faith lightly smiled. "Well, if anything ever did happen, you know you're always welcome here."

I returned a smile as well, but it started to feel like it wanted to fade away when I dove more into that thought. "Nah… They'd never do that. Especially since I'm going to Crystal Prep now." I held the fork I was using upwards to emphasize my hand gestures. "Ever since I got accepted, my parents have been treating it as an expectation of me, just so they can present me as a trophy to boast about to other parents. But that doesn't stop them from expecting _more_ from me." I sighed, feeling my mood die out.

"Is that _really_ the only reason you stay at Crystal Prep?" Faith asked with concern.

"Well…pretty much, yeah." I admitted. "But as long as you're there, I can tolerate it." I made eye contact with her and returned to a light smile. "Your name really suits you, you know?"

Faith's shoulders grew closer together and she chuckled giddily. A light shade of red made its way to the surface of her cheeks. "So does yours." She played a bit with her fork. "After all, you always seem to chase the stars."

"Is that supposed to be a joke about me and Twilight?" I asked, taking a while before I realized what she meant.

"Maybe." She paused for a moment. "Unless you think I'm a star…" She playfully acted out a bashful reaction.

I laughed a little. "Well, you're something special alright." I answered honestly. I checked my watch and noticed the time. "Do you want to start heading out already?"

"Sure." Faith stood up and lightly brushed down her skirt. "Let me just wash the dishes really quick."

"You need any help?" I inquired, though I kind of already knew the answer.

"I'm fine." She responded as she placed the dishes in the sink to wash. "Actually, could you go up to my room and grab my bag for me, please?"

"Sure." I made my way up the stairs to her room to search for her bag. I came across it near the chair in front of her computer and slightly bent over to pick it up. As I straightened my back, I noticed the picture frame near where her laptop was stationed. I brought it up and immediately recognized the photo inside the frame. It was a photo Faith and I took after around the time we acknowledged each other as best friends. Faith and I were in our school uniforms, but our blazers weren't on. We had just been wearing our white collared shirts for the upper part of the uniform. The majority of my right hand had been hiding inside my pocket while my thumb stuck outside. I was giving a natural soft smile. The both of us were. Faith had her hands behind her back as she didn't seem to hesitate getting close to me. In fact, I could see that her hair had been touching my shoulders in the photo. I felt a chuckle rising when my eyes laid over Faith's torso. Her belly button had been showing because of her shirt. Nevertheless, at least when she wore her blazer, she was able to cover the rest for the most part. I felt myself reminiscing too long before I snapped out of it and hurried back down with Faith's bag.

Faith was about done when I came down with her things. She washed her hands before she stepped out of the kitchen and found me in the main hall. I offered her bag to her and she appreciatively accepted.

"Thanks!"

"Come on." I directed as I slung my bag over my shoulder.

She followed me out the door and to the garage where I retrieved my bike. As I held it up on the driveway outside, Faith observed me silently for a bit. "After hearing what my mom said…" She brought up a bit suddenly, having me turn to her while I held my hands on the handlebars. "…I just want to thank you again. For everything."

"It's really no big deal, Faith." I contently accepted her thanks and assured that she didn't need to do any more. "I actually like hanging out with you and taking you to and from school every day. I mean, it's not like you don't do anything for me too. You…" I felt myself stop because what I was about to say was pretty embarrassing on my end. However, Faith opened her eyes in curiosity, calmly yearning for my finished statement. "…you're nice to be around with."

Faith looked back in a solid blush and then dashed over to me for a tight squeeze. She almost caused me to let the bike fall, but I managed to have one hand keep it steady as I returned the hug with the other. I could sense an immense amount of affection every time she embraced me like this. She actually held on for a little longer, but I certainly didn't mind at all. Once she stepped back, I telepathically thanked her and then boarded my bike.

"You ready?" I asked, looking back to see her nod with a bright grin.

When she securely fastened herself onto me, I began pedaling down the road and onto the sidewalk towards the school.

Our morning routine for school was the usual. We sat down in class, scribbled notes, and talked about the subject afterwards when we made our way towards the next class. Sunny Flare continued to look at me pretty oddly, and I started to feel a bit uncomfortable after Faith confirmed her suspicions. Sour Sweet was still horridly sour and painfully "sweet".

At the end of our last class before lunch, Faith asked me to look over her notes. She wanted my opinion on how good they were and if I think she wrote down the important points. I had been standing near her desk as everyone began making their way out of class when Faith handed me her notebook. I opened it partway to find today's notes until a pile of papers unexpectedly fell out.

"Oh my gosh!" Faith exclaimed in surprise as several sheets of notes scattered on the floor. She quickly bent down to pick them up. "I'm so sorry! I forgot that the notes you lent me were in there!"

"It's okay!" I assured her as I lowered myself to help her gather the papers.

As we spent several seconds recovering the fleeing notes, we heard a pretty blunt voice by us.

"You guys are in my way."

I looked upwards in the direction opposite of the door to see Sugarcoat. She had crossed her arms and didn't look too patient.

"Well, if we had some help, I'm sure we'd be done in a second." I tried to take a different approach to her manner of speaking.

"If I noticed correctly, this mess is your fault and responsibility. I am in no obligation to help you, and in fact, you are under the obligation to clean this mess quickly because I, as a student, need to leave the classroom in order to have lunch like everyone else that goes to this school."

I sighed. I think her cynical way of looking at things and pointing out everyone's flaws without hesitation is the reason I never really saw her talk to anyone at all.

Faith and I had wasted some time paying attention to this instead of working to pick up the papers. After several more seconds, it looked like we found the rest and stood up. I pointed my hands towards the doorway with an unamused and slightly annoyed look towards Sugarcoat. "Happy now?"

"I am anything but happy." She adjusted her glasses. "Because of your mess, I've wasted approximately forty-nine seconds that could have been used to walk to the cafeteria."

"Just go, Sugarcoat." I felt myself squeezing the area between my eyes with my thumb and index finger in frustration.

Sugarcoat held her hands behind her back as she began walking. However, she stopped and glanced over at Faith. "You're pretty unorganized. Maybe both of you should get your eyes checked out." Finally, she walked out the door.

"Why does she have to be so rude…?" Faith crossed her arms, looking a little disturbed and even self-conscious.

"That's just the way she is." I answered as I grabbed the papers Faith picked up and piled them together with mine. "Maybe she's so obsessed with her own flaws that she feels the need to point out other people's flaws."

"Maybe…"

I placed my notes in my bag and turned to Faith. "Why don't we head over to the cafeteria? I can look over your notes there."

"Okay." Faith picked up her bag, so we could start walking.

We made a stop by our lockers, so I could drop off my stuff. Faith kept her bag since her notes were in there. Once we walked into the cafeteria, retrieved our food, and settled down at our usual table, I began looking through Faith's notes as promised.

"These look pretty good." I commented as I flipped through the pages. "I think you've got the hang of it now."

"That's a relief." Faith's shoulders relaxed as she pressed her back against her seat. "I can't imagine going back to almost failing grades. It's all thanks to you that I got back on track."

"I was happy to tutor you." I returned, closing her notebook and passing it to her. "I know I wasn't that great but…"

"Please!" Faith lunged forward with her upper body. "With you, I was able to understand loads! After all, I was pretty lucky that you had the patience to teach me."

I smiled lightly. "Well, you were the only person I talked to anyway." I lightly joked but stated seriously at the same time.

"Don't worry." Faith returned the notebook to her bag. "I'm sure you'll—"

"Hi, guys!" A voice chimed in unexpectedly.

Both of our eyes widened greatly when we saw who it was.

"Coco!" We both exclaimed, shocked by her presence.

She placed down her things and took a seat next to me.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned, completely interested on how she was able to find the time to be with us.

"Suri had to take care of some things, so I didn't need to stay working on dresses during lunch." Coco responded.

"Do you _really_ have to lose your free time because of that one girl?" Faith asked in concern as she sipped her chocolate milk.

"Not exactly…" Coco fiddled with her fingers in thought. "Since I'm in that fashion program, I have to work pretty hard on that while making time for schoolwork too. Suri's…well…my friend, I guess, but she's _really_ fussy when it comes to work there. It's almost like all she cares about is getting her work done. Then again…" Coco adverted her eyes in worry. "She also likes to leave a lot of the heavy stuff to me…"

"Why don't you work separately from her?" I asked, feeling a little anger after listening to that remark.

"I kind of want to…" Coco timidly placed her hands between her legs. "But, I feel like…I need her to know what to do. At least for right now. She even told me herself that as long as she's with me, I'll learn what I need to do to complete and pass the program."

"Sounds like she's just taking advantage of you, if you ask me." I rested my cheek against my fist.

Coco released a drawn out sigh. "To be honest…I just want to be successful with this program. If being bossed around a little means I'll pass, then I think I can take it."

"Are you sure that's what you really want?" I asked Coco directly with serious eye contact.

She remained silent for a moment as she stared back at me. Then, she quickly turned her head away and rubbed the hands between her petite legs. "Well…I mean…it's not _all_ I want…"

"Huh?" I couldn't quite understand what she meant by that last comment.

"N-nothing!" Her head shot up from staring at her hands, and she attempted to look between us normally. "I appreciate you guys thinking and caring about me, and I think it might be enough to last me through. Even so, if I see a better opportunity, I'll think about taking it."

"I can't imagine how much hard work you've been putting through the years." I told her. "I almost feel a little bad that you have to go through so much. I really hope you do get a better opportunity."

"R-really, I'm fine!" She flipped her hand quickly with a lightly flushed face.

"If there's anything we can do, just let us know." Faith offered with a smile.

"Mm-hm! Okay!" Coco responded a little uneasily yet cheerfully.

Coco Pommel remained with us for the remainder of lunch, which was really nice since we hardly got to see her in school. When it was time for us to leave the cafeteria and head back to class, we had to express our goodbyes and hopes that we would see each other again soon.

Right before Coco was about to leave, Faith bumped my arm with her elbow and then whispered something surprising to me.

"Hug her goodbye!"

"W-what…?!" I whispered loudly.

"Just do it!"

Coco was grabbing her things as I made the few steps towards her.

"Hey, Coco…"

"Yes…?" She didn't seem to expect me coming forward like this.

"I…I just wanted to tell you that Faith and I are really hoping we can talk like this again soon."

"Yeah. Me too…" She shyly turned away.

"Um…" I rubbed my head, feeling a little awkward about what I was supposed to do. The only person that I was so used to hugging was Faith. When it came to someone else I didn't know as long, it didn't feel so easy. "Good luck with your work, Coco." I decided to step forward and gently place my arms around her.

I could hear her gasp lightly as her body jolted in shock. When I stepped backwards after a few seconds, her face was red hot, and she appeared to be completely frozen.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, wondering if I did something wrong.

It took her a moment to respond. She finally shook her head and fumbled with her words. "I-I'm fine! Really! T-t-thanks for that! I really appreciate i-it! U-um. I-I-I should probably get going now! B-bye!" She quickly grabbed ahold of her things and left with quick steps.

For some reason, I felt a little disheartened by that behavior. I walked back towards Faith with a frown while she carried a jolly smile and rocked her hips by tip-toeing with her hands behind her back.

"Did I…do something?" I asked.

"Oh, you did something alright." Faith returned confidently with an odd tone.

"Why did you tell me to do that if it was only going to turn out for the worse?" I crossed my arms, yearning for Faith's explanation.

However, she only laughed. "Trust me, Chase. As a girl, I know what girls like…most of the time…" She admitted. "I don't know what you took from that, but I know for sure that it made her day."

"If you say so…"

After Faith grabbed her bag, we began heading out of the cafeteria. Faith remained at my side, continuously glancing over at me with a silly smile.

"Hey, Chase…"

"Hm?" My eyes traveled to hers.

"Have you ever thought about dating Coco?"

I certainly wasn't expecting that. It was a good thing that we stopped eating lunch otherwise I probably would have coughed it out. "W-what?! Why ask that all of a sudden?"

"It's not sudden." She said. "I seriously think you two could be cute together."

I felt my face redden up. "Well…you know that I'm kind of into Twilight, right? Besides, Coco and I haven't really known each other for _that_ long. We don't see each other much to begin with, and I wouldn't want to just throw the question at her."

" _Ohhhhkay_." Faith strained out. "But I'm just letting you know that you have better options than Sunny Flare."

"Whatever…" I felt myself become mute as I darted my eyes away.

Faith accompanied me as I searched my locker for my schoolbag. As I pulled it out and closed my locker door, I heard a voice calling out to us.

"Faith! Chase!" Her hair, which reminded me so much of cotton candy, lightly waved back and forth as she made her way over to us. "I'm glad I caught you guys out here. I was just about to go looking for you two in your next class."

"What is it, Dean Cadance?" Faith asked for both of us, wrapping her hands behind her back in curiosity.

"Don't be alarmed, but…Principal Cinch wants to see you two in her office right now." She informed.

"Oh no. What did we do now?" I asked, feeling pretty aggravated and annoyed rather than terrified.

"You're not in trouble." Dean Cadance assured. "She just wants to speak with you about something. You remember where her office is?"

"How could we not?" Faith questioned rhetorically. It was a way of showing that after the amount of times we've been in there for various different reasons, it was pretty hard to forget the way.

Dean Cadance returned a light smile at Faith's remark. "I'll go give your teacher the reason for your absence. Go on ahead and meet with Principal Cinch. I'll see you two there in a few."

"Okay. Thanks, Dean Cadance." I expressed before she briefly waved and continued on her way.

Faith and I walked through the hallways as they cleared out. At least we didn't have to look at anyone else's conceited faces or take unnecessary rude shoves. Despite the circumstances, it almost felt like we had a time to breathe.

"What do you think she wants to talk to us about?" Faith asked.

"I have no clue." I spoke my thoughts. "Dean Cadance said we weren't in any trouble, so…" I shrugged.

"If that's true, then it really narrows things down. I could totes come up with so many things we'd get in trouble for." She shared as we climbed up the stairs.

"Yeah…" I responded with an agreeing smile. "I get you." As we walked the final flight of stairs, I sort of braced myself mentally for what was to come, even if we weren't in trouble as Dean Cadance said. "If it's not trouble hiding behind that door, then I'm really interested for what's to come."

"Guess we're about to find out." Faith kept her spirits high as we arrived at the door.

"You want me to go in first?" I inquired in a somewhat playful manner.

"I'm a big girl." She replied wittily.

I opened the door for her and allowed her to walk in. Then, I followed her afterwards, making sure to close the door after the Grinch had scolded me for leaving it open before. There were a couple of seats in front of her desk, but they were only barstools really. Faith and I took our seats and waited patiently for Grinch to bring her attention to us. She had been looking through some papers for some time, and even after we sat down, she hadn't said a word until she found the time to do so.

"Faith Meadows. Star Chaser." She listed us fully, which we weren't too used to since we were called our short versions most of the time.

"Yes?" We both answered as politely and modestly as possible.

"Do you know why I called you both here?" She questioned.

"Nuh-uh." Faith shook her head.

"Not a clue, ma'am." I answered.

"I'm sure you've both have heard of the Friendship Games, am I correct?" She eyed each of us, and she connected her hands together through her fingers in front of her mouth.

However, Faith and I exchanged a clueless look between each other.

"Friendship Games?" Faith returned.

"You're telling me that for as long as you've attended this prestigious school, you have not once heard of the Friendship Games?" The Grinch looked doubtful as she cocked an eyebrow, but I could sense a bit a hostility and frustration mix in as well.

I always acted in a somewhat satirical and sarcastic manner when it came to Principal Grinch, but I made sure to do it in a way where she technically couldn't get after me. "Forgive us if we're supposed to know about these Friendship Games, Principal Cinch, but I believe we've been more focused on studying with our academics than learning about these… 'Games'."

Faith lightly smirked towards me as she knew the motive behind my "formal" behavior.

Nevertheless, the Grinch sighed and massaged the area between her eyes with her fingers. She already seemed to be giving us the "I'm so disappointed in you kids" expression for the day. "No matter." She continued as we heard a door open behind. "I'm sure Dean Cadance will be able to fill you in." She looked past us, having us take a glance behind to see Dean Cadance walk in and stand by the door silently. "The reason I brought you two in here relates to these Games I speak of. I want _you two_ to compete."

"Huh?" Faith and I simultaneously expressed.

"You two are to participate in these Games, is that not simple enough?"

She had never asked us to compete in anything, mostly because we were never as talented or really willing to be played around like puppets for her benefit. In summary, all she ever did was get after us, so it was really a surprise when she wanted us to participate in some type of competition.

"I don't understand." I shared. "Surely, you have students that would…prove to be more adequate for competitions?"

"That is true." She bluntly admitted. "However, I've been looking over the scores for our schools and the recent developments from the competition themselves: Canterlot High School."

The name of this school immediately stirred up something inside Faith. "Canterlot High School…?"

"Precisely." Principal Grinch continued. "You do not need to worry over the details surrounding this case, but there is one thing I will explain for my reasons of including the two of you in these Games." She took a second of silence to glance at each of us again. "I'm sure the two of you would describe your friendship as close, am I right?"

"Y-yeah…?" I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. Why would she bring up our friendship all of a sudden?

As you must know, the majority of students here do not spend time on such an unnecessary frivolous matter. It is perhaps the reason why their performance in certain academics are higher than yours." I wanted to cross my arms because I was starting to feel a little offended. "Our purpose here at Crystal Prep is to create a strong educational background for every student. In turn, there is no time to work with such things like 'friendship', and it is advised that you spent the time focusing on your studies instead." Yeah, yeah, we get it. Just get on with it. "But that is beside the point. The reason I want you two in these Friendship Games is solely based on the fact that you have this type of friendship."

"What?" Faith almost lunged forward on her desk. "Didn't you just say you despised friendship?"

"I stated that I simply find friendship unnecessary and rather a distraction." She corrected both Faith's words and her glasses. "I do not approve of this friendship you have between each other, but I recently realized that it can be proven somewhat useful in these Games. These _are_ the Friendship Games we are talking about, so there's bound to be something about friendship that should help."

"I still don't understand." I mentioned. "Why exactly do you want us if you've apparently won just fine without 'friendship'?"

"I mentioned previously that there have been some…changes…to Canterlot High's record. For these Friendship Games, I've decided to make a few changes myself. You need not to worry the reasons behind my decisions, all you need to do is understand and abide by them."

I finally crossed my arms, despite whether she would say something about that or not. "This isn't mandatory, is it?"

"I suppose you could say it's not…but if I were in your shoes, I would surely take this offer." She stated strangely.

"Why…?" Faith asked in concern.

"You two have had struggles in the past regarding the rigorous courses implemented in this school, have you not?"

Faith and I exchanged another look with each other.

"Yeah, I guess." I responded. I wasn't exactly fond with most of the courses, and I'm sure Faith especially wasn't either.

"Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure you two could manage with hard work. However, I am willing to provide some beneficial assistance for the rest of your time here." This definitely caught our attention. She faced Faith. "Faith Meadows, I'm sure you'd love to see the look your mother has when she sees you graduate from this institution?" She then turned to me. "Star Chaser, you must agree that your parents are weighing pretty heavily on your successful outcome with this school?"

I wanted to sink in my chair. She knew how pressured I've felt about being strapped to this school by my parents.

"So, what are you saying?" Faith questioned, appearing a little more nervous than relaxed like when we first came in.

"I'm saying that if you agree and participate in these Games, I will do everything in my power to guarantee your success with this school, provided you still continue your hard work, of course."

So, she was pretty much giving us insurance or something? As long as we kept doing our best, we'd be sure to graduate? I wasn't so sure about this. I never trusted the Grinch in anything…but these Friendship Games didn't sound like a big deal. In fact, it sounded like a short term thing, and if we had a chance to know that we'd be graduating fine, then I say it's worth it. But, I still needed to check with Faith.

"Faith…" I turned to her as she carefully returned my look. "Are you up for this?"

Faith stared aimlessly in thought before she turned her eyes back to me. "Honestly, I'm with whatever you think…"

I sighed and stared at my feet for a moment. Then, I lifted my head to our principal. "Are you really serious about what you're offering to us for participating in these Games?"

"I am, indeed." She calmly replied. "As your trusted principal, I only want the best for my students."

Heh. Right.

Nevertheless, I slightly bent forward towards her desk. "If you really will guarantee our graduation for participating in these Games, then we'll do it."

"Excellent." She sat back on her chair in accomplishment. "I am glad to hear your decision." She looked past us to meet eyes with Dean Cadance. "Dean Cadance, could you provide them instructions with the upcoming Friendship Games?"

"Of course, Principal Cinch." Dean Cadance accepted. "Right this way, you two." She opened the door that led back into the hall and presented a hand in the direction.

Faith and I stood up to begin following her directions before Grinch stopped us.

"Just remember this, Faith Meadows and Star Chaser." We looked back. "Do not think that my offer still stands if you simply just 'attend' the Friendship Games. You must prove to me that you earned and deserve this assistance, so be sure to do your best out there."

We didn't have it in us to say another word, so we turned back towards Dean Cadance and followed her out of the office. For some reason, everything about that deal was just sketchy and uncomfortable.

We followed Dean Cadance back to her office in an almost disturbed silence. Dean Cadance opened the door and invited us in. Once we were inside, she closed the door and walked over to her desk where she sat down. She rummaged through some papers before she began speaking to us.

"Those attending and participating in the Friendship Games will be boarding buses to Canterlot High School for a visit. This will happen tomorrow during the morning hours and we're scheduled to return back a little before classes are dismissed for the day. You two will be exempted from your classes for the days you will be undergoing participation for the Friendship Games, and your teachers will be notified of these absences. The day after that is when the Friendship Games will officially begin, and we will leave at the same time as we do tomorrow morning." Dean Cadance separated a few papers and handed us a couple each. "I'll provide you a copy of the schedule each, so you won't be lost. You'll be boarding bus one forty-two. I've also written this number on your copies."

"Thanks…" I looked over the copy for myself. "So we head outside at the time we're usually supposed to start heading to class?"

"Yes." Dean Cadance responded. "I'll be there making sure every student is accounted for and with their buses. If you have any questions at that time, you can be sure to ask me." She turned her sight over to Faith, whom had been staring at her schedule without saying a word. "Faith, are you alright?"

"Are we _really_ going to Canterlot High School…?" She asked a little shakily.

"Yes." Dean Cadance answered. "Canterlot High School has always been the other competitor for the Friendship Games. Is there a problem?"

"N-no… It's nothing…"

Of course, it definitely wasn't nothing. It was the school she had previously attended. The school where she was falsely accused and framed. I knew what was going through her mind, and it made me wonder why Faith didn't decline the offer to begin with. It seemed Principal Grinch wanted the two of us only because of our "friendship". Was she doing this because I wanted to do it for my "guaranteed graduation"? I wasn't sure, but I needed to talk to her about this later at home.

"We're hoping things will run smoothly." Dean Cadance expressed and then relaxed back in her chair with a soft sigh. "How have things been with Twilight?" She asked.

That question sort of caught us off-guard since we had been pressured so suddenly with the Friendship Games just a few moments ago.

Faith turned her head to me, as if she wanted me to give the report.

"There's still not much progress. She still kind of locks herself up in that room she does her own thing in. A lot of the times we've invited her out to do things, she'd rather spend her time working on something with science or school." I explained.

"I see." Dean Cadance tapped her fingers and rested her cheek on her hand. "She's a very good student. There's no doubt about that. But, I wish she'd be more social like the two of you are between each other. It'd be really nice to see her interact with the both of you. I really think she could use it instead of focusing on work the entire time."

"Yeah…" I agreed as I crossed my arms and slightly looked away.

Dean Cadance turned her head to get a view of the clock on the wall. "I don't think I should keep you guys here for much longer. Principal Cinch probably still has some work for me to do, so I'll let you two return to class."

"Alright." I returned and began getting out of my seat as Faith did the same. We began to walk out with our copies until Dean Cadance spoke once more.

"Chase?" I turned my head towards her. "If it helps, I'll try talking to Twilight, okay?"

I nodded calmly. "Okay."

Afterwards, Faith and I walked out of the office and began making our way back to class.

We went about our day as normally as we could while trying to sink in our new assignment outside of classes. Nearing the end of the day, I believed our physical exercises allowed us to possibly release some stress and distract ourselves from our new expectations. Faith and I were definitely ready to head home as we walked back towards the changing rooms.

However, we were surprised when we found Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare hanging around outside their side of the locker rooms. They hadn't changed yet and remained in their t-shirt and shorts. I didn't think much of it until they turned towards us once they heard our footsteps.

"There he is." Sunny Flare lowered her eyelids and stepped up to me. "So…" She reached out for my hand and began to hold it. "I was wondering if you were free this evening. We could go watch a movie or have a pretty lavish dinner."

Sour Sweet crossed her arms and appeared to hold in many things she couldn't say.

"Uhh…" I didn't know how to respond. In fact, I began feeling a little uncomfortable to where I sort of wanted to yank my hand away.

"He's not going to do anything with you!" Faith broke the hold and claimed my hand for herself instead.

This move annoyed Sunny Flare. "Excuse me?" She asked, holding her hand in the air as if she hadn't accepted what had just happened.

"He's not interested in dating you!" Faith directed bluntly.

Nevertheless, Sunny Flare placed on a complacent smile. "He's got to grow up sometime, dearie. It's not right to hold him back because you want him all for yourself."

Faith looked like she was getting steamed, but she never really got out of control physically. If anything, it would be emotionally. "I-I-It's not that I want him all for myself. It's just you're not the right person for him, and I'm not going to stand for it!"

Sunny Flare crossed her own arms and shared an arrogant grin. "Oh really? How many times have you told him that? Because the only girl I've ever only seen him with is you."

"So what?! It's not any of your business!" Faith bent forward in Sunny Flare's direction. I could tell she was really starting to get into this, but I wasn't sure if I should let her keep talking or stop her.

"Well, it's not any of your business about what goes on between us." Sunny Flare closed her eyes in accomplishment as if she felt she had the upper hand in the argument.

"It is if I know you're going to just take advantage of him!" Faith continued to fire shots.

Sunny Flare returned an irritated look now as if she was growing tired of Faith's bickering. She must have felt as if Faith was holding onto a toy she didn't want to let go of. "Listen, dearie. If you're so attached to Chase, then why aren't _you_ dating him? Maybe it's you who's taking advantage of him by just being his 'friend'?"

In response, Faith appeared to be almost completely offended. "N-no way! I'm not!"

I felt things were getting too out of hand, so I tried subtly cutting in. "Look Faith, you don't have to do this—"

"Let her, Chase." Sunny Flare said otherwise. "I want to know why she's so insistent on what _she_ wants instead of what _you_ want." She turned her scowl back to Faith. "Answer the question, Meadows. You two are _always_ together, yet you've shown no hint of attraction." She placed a finger on her lips and looked up in thought. "Hmm… Wait a second… I _do_ remember you were actually failing at some point in your first year here. Oh…but hold on…you're still here, aren't you? You want to know why? Because _Chase_ took the time to help you. After that, you two seemed to hit it off there. But, what I'm thinking is that you're only around Chase because he helps you get through school."

"What?!" Faith questioned in utter disbelief. "That's not true! I—"

I had to stop Sunny Flare there.

"You're wrong, Sunny. There's much more to it than that."

"Is there?" Sunny Flare responded. "Because if she thinks I'm trying to take advantage of you by what she knows about me, then I think I have just as much reason to think she's taking advantage of you by what _I_ know of her."

I could feel Faith's hand began to shake.

"Sunny—"

I wanted to respond, but then Faith began speaking.

"You want to see my affection for Chase so badly…?" She asked in fenced anger.

Sunny Flare smirked. "If you even have any, by all means."

"You're…so _**DUMB!**_ " Faith shouted out and the next thing I knew, I was being pulled in all of a sudden.

It felt like a pair of slightly moist yet sweet marshmallows were planted firmly on my lips. During the time, I was so shocked that I didn't know what to feel from it. This connection lasted around three to five seconds, but it honestly felt a lot longer than that.

Faith's face pulled away from me, and I remained staring at her in somewhat disbelief. Her eyes had been closed during the process, and her cheeks looked like they could be hot like a stovetop. The lids of her eyes slightly opened, but she didn't dare look at anyone.

Almost forgetting about the situation we had been in, I turned to see the reaction from Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet. They both had been extremely silent and honestly even surprised. Even Sour Sweet had been looking at us with widened eyes as if she never expected such a turn of events from the conversation she had appeared uninterested with.

"Wow." Sunny finally expressed through the long and awkward silence. "I must give you credit, Faith. I'd never thought you'd do something like that." She turned to Sour Sweet and shared a look. "Alright, you win. I'll leave Chase alone…for now." She faced me. "If you ever decide on what _you_ want, you just let me know, okay?"

Afterwards, the two turned around and headed for the door to their locker rooms. It was just me and Faith now.

"Faith?" I asked, looking over at her to see her appear frozen.

"I don't want to go in there…" She mentioned softly and then covered her eyes with her hands. "I don't want to see them…on my own."

I stepped closer to her, and as if she detected my presence, her head fell towards my chest. I gently placed my hands on her back and patted her. "It's okay. We'll wait until they come out."

Faith didn't say anything and only remained lightly sulking on my shoulder.

We sat nearby with some distance away from the doors. Things between us were silent at the time, and they stayed like that until we noticed Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet walk out with their uniforms. I waited until Faith finished looking at them leave the area and stood up. I followed her towards the doors and she stopped to stand still in front of the girls' locker room entrance. She glanced over to me as if she needed assurance for something, but then she decided to enter without a word. Continuing to stare as the door closed behind her, I finally decided to enter the boys' locker room to change.

My body sort of went on auto-pilot as I changed into my uniform. My mind instead began to focus on what happened minutes earlier. Honestly, there was nothing awkward between Faith and me after she kissed me. In fact, that wasn't the first time she had done something like that. Although, I had to admit that the only other time was under better circumstances.

I began to wonder why I didn't take Faith's kiss as a big deal or freak out about it. I think…I was used to it just like if I had received a hug from Faith. The first one we shared was more of…a special kind of affection. It had actually been both of our first kiss, and I supposed the holiday at the time is what made Faith raise up the courage to surprise me with it.

Of course, she hadn't reacted in the same way as she did a few minutes ago. She handled the first pretty calmly and just acted like herself. This time, it felt like she was practically forced to do it, and she sort of had to deal with the embarrassment of doing it in front of others. I wasn't exactly sure what went through Faith's mind at the time or even now, but all I could say is that it didn't hurt me the least bit on my end.

When I was finished, I walked out the locker room and stood outside for Faith. It took a little while longer than usual, and I began to slightly worry for her. However, soon enough, she appeared out her door and found me waiting.

She slowly walked over to me. "Did I keep you waiting?"

"It's fine." I casually answered. "You ready to head home?"

"Yeah." She nodded and then quietly followed me back to the front of the school.

I didn't see Twilight this time, so I just got to my bike. We were out of there in a few minutes, and even the ride was pretty silent. I wanted to talk to Faith, but I figured it'd be best to wait on it until we got home. Eventually, we arrived at her driveway, and she stepped off.

She walked a few steps and then stopped to stare towards the ground.

"Faith?" I called.

Her response was silence for a moment before she turned around, her shoes scraping against the pavement. "I'm sorry. Do you want to come in?"

I wasn't expecting her to ask me like that, but it was what I wanted in the end anyway. "Yeah, if you don't mind."

She shook her head. "Mm-mm."

I followed her on her driveway and proceeded to station my bike in the garage.

Like yesterday, she changed into more comfortable clothes when we were in her room. Afterwards, she spent the time hanging off the side of her bed towards the carpet floor and stared blankly at the TV. She had turned it on, but it didn't seem she was really into whatever was being broadcasted.

I felt like I needed to do something, otherwise it looked like I wasn't even here to help her deal with stuff. I decided that if I was to do anything, it'd be best to start with being next to her. I took a seat by the side of the bed near her and observed her for a bit as she continued almost lifelessly staring at the TV.

"Is that comfortable for you?" I lightly joked.

However, she only returned a slow shrug and fumbled with her thumbs over her lazily exposed midriff.

"Come on, sit normally." I suggested in a more serious tone, revealing a bit of my concern.

She glanced at me with troubled eyes and then allowed her feet to drop to the side on top of the carpet. When she was finally upright, she sat in a similar manner as me and pulled down her shirt to her waist. She covered her chest with her knees and placed her hands on her shins.

"You want to talk?" I asked.

"About what?" She turned her head towards me.

"About what's bothering you."

"Come on… I'm fine…" She turned her head back to the TV until I grabbed the remote and shut it off.

"Anyone with a brain can tell that you're not." A light smile grew on me.

She guided the strand of hair in front of her left eye back behind her hairclip and sighed. "I'm really sorry…"

"Why?"

"I'm really not using you or anything, you know?" She continued.

"I know that, Faith." I assured. "I think all the stuff we've been through together would prove that." Her pupils slipped into the corner of her eyes away from me. "You've still got all those pictures we've taken together on your phone, right?"

Her jaw lightly stretched as her mouth grew agape. "Yeah… Of course, I do…"

"Look them over." I advised. "Then you'll realize that you can't sit there and worry that you've been 'using' me when you see the kind of fun we've had in those pictures."

Faith picked up the phone that was at her side. She appeared as if she was going to look through it until she unexpectedly placed it back down on the carpet. "But…but why do I feel so…wrong?"

"Huh?" I wondered, slightly tilting my head.

"I probably shouldn't have done it…huh…?" She turned her head back towards me. "I shouldn't have kissed you."

"You're worried about _that?_ " I found it a little humorous. "It's really no big deal."

"B-but… Isn't that what couples do? People who are dating? Isn't it bad to express something like that when it's uncalled for?" She anxiously searched for answers.

I turned my sight to the floor and thought extensively about it. It didn't feel wrong to me, but I wanted to find a way to put it into words that would get it across. When an idea hit me, the neutral position of my mouth stretched into a smile.

"You've just got to look at it another way." I said, causing a puzzled look to form on her face. "Let me ask you something. Why did you do it in the first place?"

Faith began to blush and looked to the side. "I…I don't know… I really care about you and…sometimes a hug doesn't feel enough to express it."

"And you're comfortable doing it, right?" I continued.

"Preferably if it's just us…yeah."

"Then there's nothing you need to worry about. It's not like you and I are seeing anyone. The way I see it, it's just an innocent little sign of affection. I'm sure you've seen videos online where a little boy and girl can kiss on the lips and _everyone_ thinks it's adorable and cute, right?"

"Mm-hm." She lightly nodded and began to turn her gaze back to me as she softly sucked in her lips.

"Just think of it as a reminder on how close we are." I added. "After all, it's pretty much the reason why Cinch wanted us to participate in the Friendship Games, right?"

"About the games…" She appeared to have something else troubling come across her mind. "I'm a little scared about going. Actually, the more I think about it, the more scared I get."

"Is it because it's your old school? The school where…" I stopped myself there.

She nodded. "I try to not think about it too much…but I slowly start to realize that I'll be seeing people I _really_ don't want to see there."

"Sorry…" I began feeling apologetic myself. "Maybe I shouldn't have accepted Cinch's offer."

Faith shook her head this time and placed a hand on my shoulder. "I know how strict your parents are about finishing at Crystal Prep, and I'd really want the two of us to graduate there. Besides, this might be good for me anyway…"

"Why?" I turned towards her from her last remark.

"I feel like I'm always running away or avoiding things that I need to face frontwards, and I hate that. I want to be brave and confident…and if that means having to face my fear of my past at Canterlot High, then maybe it's best I do this. I don't want to be scared of that dumb school. In fact, I want that school to know that I have better things to worry about than them." She made eye contact with me as she presented a small but bright smile.

"I guess…I'm glad to hear that." I returned the feeling, wanting to support her in any way I could to help her overcome her fear.

"Although, I'm not going to lie. Thinking about seeing people I knew back then there makes my stomach turn. But as long as you're by my side…I think should be okay."

"No problem there." I enthusiastically shared. "We'll show them what we're made of."

Joy ran through my veins when I heard Faith giggle. "Yeah! I can't wait for that!" She immediately stood up and returned to her cheery self. "Do you think maybe you can camp out here for the Friendship Games? I think I'd want our friendship to be in tip top shape for the competition."

"Sure." I accepted as I began to pull my phone out. "I'll be sure to mention to my parents that it's for Crystal Prep. They definitely shouldn't have a problem once they realize that they'll have something else to brag about me."

"I'm not exactly fond of that…" Faith expressed with a disapproving frown at my last remark. "But I guess the important thing right now is us?" She returned a hopeful grin.

I chuckled a little. "Yeah."

A lot should come from these "Friendship Games."

Guaranteed graduation.

"Happy" parents.

Some time away from school.

And if it's still possible, the bond Faith and I share can grow to even greater lengths from this event.

Plus…I might just find that Sunset Shimmer… If I do, who knows how I'll act, but if I see her in the same way I saw her in the video, then I'll be sure to try to find some way to get back at her for Faith.


	3. Meeting the Competition

**Neo Tastsuji aka Zeta Master: Accept OC? You mean like incorporate someone else's OC into a story? No, I don't really do that.**

 **Awesomo3000: I don't really like giving out what happens later on in a story, so I'm just going to make no comment.**

 **UsagiAngelRabbit: I'd say to not think of Chase and Faith as direct counterparts of Alex and Spirit/Athena. In hindsight, they're their own person.**

 **Shadow Solaris: I actually kind of liked writing this. Besides the stuff that already takes place in the movie, a lot of stuff here is pretty original. In the movie you pretty much see things through CHS for the most part, but here, I'm able to mostly show Crystal Prep's side, if you know what I mean.**

 **Foreststar of WindClan: Funny that you mention that. Before, when we only had news about Equestria Girls, but no footage or anything, I actually thought that. "Are they going to have human names? I think it'd be so weird if they keep their pony names." Either way, when the movie came out, despite having pony names, it sort of still fit. I'm pretty sure there's people out there that'll whine if an OC has a 'human' name despite being in this human world. I'm surprised that I haven't heard any whining about pony names being in Equestria, but I suppose the movie is official material, and critics in this fandom sure love their cherry-picking and double standards. All in all, we aren't given much information about how things like magic would translate into this world. We don't even know how Sunset Shimmer is able to exactly _live_ in this world, despite coming from _another_ world. Like did she get a house all on her own or something? Who knows if we'll ever know. It's things like this that makes writing a fanfic kind of hard. It's possible to write in your own lore, but it wouldn't be great in the end if the show just completely shatters it. Sorry, if I kind of started rambling there lol. It's late as I'm writing this and my eyes are pretty tired.**

* * *

After Faith and I checked off our morning preparations and had our usual breakfast, we headed over to school. However, since we really didn't have anything else to do and didn't have to go to class today, we decided to move over to the back where the buses were supposed to be.

There were indeed stationed there, but it didn't look like anyone bothered coming early. It was understandable, I suppose. Especially if you were in the cafeteria having breakfast. Faith and I decided we'd wait for Dean Cadance to show up since she would be the handling the bus situation.

"Cool buses." Faith commented on the look of our transportation as we took a seat on the pavement outside the school doors.

"Only the best for Crystal Prep, I guess." I added, taking notice on how the buses actually looked like the charter ones used for long distance travel. Funnily enough, we were only going a fairly short distance to Canterlot High. I turned to her. "How are you doing?"

She released a calm deep breath. "I'm trying not to think about it."

"If it helps, maybe they won't even recognize or remember you?" I offered.

She chuckled at that. "Yeah, like they're gonna forget about the girl with different colored eyes who caused a scene at the big Freshman Fair."

She had a point… "Who knows?" I hoped. "Maybe big things have happened there that caused them to forget about what happened? After all, Cinch mentioned about some kind of 'change' in that school."

Faith returned a sigh. "I just hope everything goes well."

"Yeah, me too." I agreed and stared at the buses with her silence.

Soon enough, we heard the school doors open, but it was still a little too early for everyone to be coming out. We turned to see Dean Cadance focusing her attention on a clipboard as she walked towards the parking lot.

"Good morning, Dean Cadance." I greeted.

She stopped in her tracks when she noticed us out here already. "Chase. Faith. You two are…early."

"We didn't really have anything better to do." Faith admitted with a sort of shy smile.

"I hope you didn't skip breakfast." Dean Cadance began concerning herself.

We shook our heads.

"We're fine." I said.

"Good. Let's see if we can board you two already." Dean Cadance began walking towards the bus we were supposed to get on, having us follow behind her.

As we came close, I noticed that there was some kind of mounting on the back of the bus. I only realized a short time later that these buses were equipped with a bike rack.

"No way. This bus can hold bikes too?" I mentioned out loud, letting Faith know of my astonished discovery.

"You want to go back and get it really quick?" She asked.

"Nah…" I responded after thinking for a second. "I wouldn't really know where to leave it over at Canterlot High. I'd think they'd have bike stands or something, but I'm not too sure. I guess we can just take a look over there first, and then I could probably bring my bike tomorrow."

"Last I remember, I think they did." Faith believed.

"Well, I guess we'll just make sure." I crossed my arms and waited for Dean Cadance to return to the front of the bus doors.

She had moved around to the driver's side of the bus to presumably ask the driver if we could board now. It didn't take her long to get an answer and come back.

"You two can go ahead and get on. Just take your seat and wait patiently for the remainder of the time. If you have any questions or concerns, I'll be right here checking with other students, okay?"

"Okay." I answered.

"Thank you, Dean Cadance." Faith expressed with a smile as she held her hands behind her back.

Dean Cadance smiled back as she turned around towards the school and rummaged through the papers on her clipboard. The bus doors opened, and we walked up the steps inside. The bus driver didn't look too friendly or in the mood to talk, so we headed directly for our seats. The great thing about being early was deciding where in the entire bus to sit. Nevertheless, Faith and I decided to take the seats right in front of the very back, hugging the entrance side of the bus.

Faith sat by the window. "This is pretty cool." She said as she shared a smile back to me. "Kind of reminds you when my mom would take us out of the city, right?"

"Yeah." I formed a warm grin on my face, almost beginning to reminiscence over the times we'd sort of go on "vacation" during the summer and winter with Faith's mom. "It sort of has that cozy feeling, but I'm sure that's soon to go away when people start boarding."

"True…" Faith admitted as she stretched her connected hands between her legs. "Guess we should enjoy it while it lasts, huh?"

"Yeah." I agreed and felt a sudden idea pop inside my head. I pulled out my phone and tapped the camera app on the screen. "Why don't we take a picture together before people get on and think we're weird?"

Faith's face immediately lit up. "You're assuming people don't _already_ think we're weird. But yeah, okay!"

I held the phone up with my left hand and pointed the camera at us. Faith grabbed the right side of the phone with her right hand to help me steady it. She scooched a lot closer to me until she could see herself within the frame. She positioned her shoulder behind mine so her face could move in. Her cheek was within range to touch mine, but her chest didn't hesitate to press against my arm. Normally, I'd most likely be a nervous wreck if a girl got that close to me, but this was Faith. The two of us have always been physically close, even when we weren't taking photos, so it was a pretty normal thing between us.

As we composed our natural silly smiles, I took the picture shortly after. I lowered the phone and brought it closer so we could look it over. Faith placed her left hand on my shoulder and brought her right hand over to my leg, allowing her to lean in further to have a closer look at my screen.

We took a moment of silence to observe our picture before any words were to be spoken.

"I really like it." Faith was the first to say as she continued gazing at the screen.

"Really?" I felt the need to clarify, even though I heard the genuine tone in her voice.

"Yeah! I don't know what else to say." She took the time to turn to me now. "Whenever we take pictures like this, or even when I look back at them, I always can't help but smile. It's always a good memory!"

"You're right." I approved, feeling a happy warmth from Faith. "I guess it's just one of those things that have got us through the bad times, right?"

"Totes." Faith beamed and turned back to my screen. "Send it to me!"

"I know, I know." I smirked as I tapped Faith's contact and sent her the picture.

Faith pulled out her phone and looked as if she could literally glue her eyes to her screen as she waited to receive the message. "This is going to be my new wallpaper!"

As I observed her mess with the contents of her phone, I carefully noticed her hair. Faith always had the tendency to change her hairstyle often. In fact, it was as if she had some sort of pattern, cycle, or schedule she followed. But for some reason, I took more time to notice her hair during the moment. Even though she liked changing her hair, I believed her neutral/normal style was having it rest over her left shoulder. This time, she tied the long side from the left over to the opposite side on top of her right shoulder. It provided a nice new fresh look without taking too much away from the original. Another thing I loved about her was her creativity with things like that. In this case, it was her hair.

Faith noticed me somewhat gawking at her and began to redden up. "Wh-what?"

"You look really pretty today." I shared honestly.

Faith jumped a little as she must have not expected me to say that all of a sudden. "O-oh, really? Thanks!" She quickly expressed before she sort of immediately turned towards the window.

I chuckled and took a glance out the window myself to notice students beginning to appear in the area outside the bus.

"Looks like everyone else is coming out." Faith noted, returning to a calm voice.

"Yeah." I added, watching alongside her.

"Guess we don't have the bus all to ourselves now." Faith sighed lightly, beginning to look like she wanted to sulk in her chair.

"Yeah, but it had to happen sometime. If we come early tomorrow again, maybe we can have the bus to ourselves one more time?" I offered a hopeful smile.

She rolled her eyes in sort of a playful manner. "Yeah." She then turned back to observing out the window.

Students lined up at their supposed buses including ours. Every now and then, a student or two would come aboard. Faith and I remained pretty quiet until we noticed Suri Polomare board with a familiar friend behind her.

"It's Coco!" I informed Faith.

Faith immediately sat up to spot her walking in the middle of the bus. "Hi, Coco!" She waved energetically.

Coco's eyes lit up when she heard Faith's voice and turned towards us to notice us sitting at the end of the bus. She held up her hand to return a waving motion with her fingers while forming a timid grin. However, Suri had been giving Coco a soft glare as if she had been expecting Coco to take her seat already. Coco realized this and sadly took her seat next to Suri.

"I guess they're participating in the games too?" I assumed.

"That or they're just watching. It sucks that she has to be with her though…" Faith continued observing the two in their seats. They didn't seem to make any bit of conversation with one another, but that was pretty expected.

"Yeah…" I merely answered with, resting my cheek on my fist.

Faith leaned over by the window to continue observing what was going on outside. "…hey!" She lightly bumped me with her elbow. "Twilight's getting on this bus!"

"What? Really?" I immediately sat up and leaned over Faith to get a look by her.

Twilight had been standing in front of Dean Cadance. I couldn't help but notice Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare were behind her and appearing to send disgusted glares. Dean Cadance walked away with her index finger up as if verbally placing Twilight on hold. Sour Sweet exchanged some words with Twilight, and if I knew her well enough, they weren't pretty ones. This, in return, caused Sunny Flare to flip her irritated frown upside down.

Twilight turned back as she pushed her glasses up against her face and responded.

Sour Sweet wrapped her hands in front of her body in a ladylike and sweet manner and spoke again. I was able to get an idea with what she might have been saying to Twilight. Nevertheless, Sunny Flare remained looking like she was enjoying the show Sour Sweet was putting on.

Twilight reacted a bit defensively before Dean Cadance came up behind her.

Twilight and Sour Sweet exchanged a few more words before Twilight approached the bus doors and stepped on. Before she could turn towards us, a student lunged out towards her in surprise.

" **Are we gonna win?!** " The major jock of the school, Indigo Zap, I think, yelled out to her.

"I...I don't know." Twilight answered, fixing her glasses.

"Wrong answer! Try again! Are we gonna **win?!** " Indigo Zap repeated.

"Um...I guess?" Twilight tried to answer correctly. "I-It's just...I mean...I heard that CHS is doing well now. With their reputation. And, I mean, it's not better than ours, of course. But we can't let them do it, you know? Win, I mean? Right?"

After her guess, everyone else in the bus looked at her strangely or seemed to have not been able to care less about what she had to say. It wasn't until the bus driver, who I had not even noticed leave before, opened his side of the door and climbed on. "You're gonna have to take a seat!" He directed bitterly after noticing Twilight stand at the front of the bus.

With her head facing downwards in shame, she began walking down the aisle. As she did, I noticed how mostly everyone with a free seat moved aside to prevent Twilight from sitting down near them. I noticed a place she could sit down behind us, so I called her over.

"Twilight, over here!" I waved, catching her attention.

She looked up, but she didn't exactly smile.

"Hi, Twilight." Faith greeted with a smile as Twilight walked by towards the free seat.

"Hi, Faith." Twilight managed to lift up her frown. "Hi, Chase." She told me before she sat and turned to Sugarcoat, whom was at the opposite side of her. "Hi, Sugarcoat."

"That was a really bad speech." Sugarcoat turned back to immediately lay her unrestricted thoughts on Twilight. "You should consider not speaking in public." She finished before she turned back to the bus.

Twilight shut her month and faced her eyes on her backpack with an upset look.

Feeling my eyebrows furrow in irritation, I wanted to follow up on Sugarcoat's annoying personality. "You know, maybe _you_ shouldn't consider speaking in public, Sugarcoat."

Sugarcoat only glanced over at me with her eyes, but she didn't bother responding back as she carelessly turned back to the front.

I sat back with little satisfaction from her response.

"I don't think there's any point in arguing with her…" Faith mentioned softly.

Remembering the person that I had been defending, I slightly stood up and turned over to the back of my seat to face past the headrest.

"You alright, Twilight?"

"I'm fine, really." She returned back after having stared into her backpack.

She genuinely didn't sound too affected by Sugarcoat's unnecessary harsh words, so I decided to take my seat again.

Faith decided to mischievously smirk and lean in towards me. "Maybe you want to sit next to her and comfort her, hm?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" I almost shouted out loud from embarrassment. Remembering how Twilight was _right_ behind us, I had to constantly make sure my voice stayed pretty low when the subject of the conversation was about her.

"Ch-ch-ch-Chase!" Faith and I were surprised to hear a familiar voice swing in a rhythm at the seat in front of us. She removed her hot pink headphones and hung them around her neck, allowing us to hear somewhat of what she had been listening to. "Have you heard their new album?! It totally kicks asphalt!"

I had to admit that Lemon Zest was one of the only few girls in Crystal Prep who wasn't too stuck-up and obnoxious to make friends around her. In fact, the two of us had met at a music store back when I had been looking for information over a band we found that we both liked. Nowadays, she likes to share her excitement and enjoyment over music with me every now and then.

"It's already out?" I questioned in light surprise. "I haven't been keeping up with them lately."

" _What?_ " She turned out to be slightly taken aback from my answer. "I've got to get you up to speed sometime, dude!"

"Yeah, sure." I accepted her offer with an appreciative smile before another voice cut in.

"Could you two over there _please_ keep it down?"

I looked past Lemon Zest's way to see Sour Sweet working her obviously forced politeness as usual. She had already been sitting with Sunny Flare, and I believed our insanely short-lived conservation got to her.

Lemon Zest pointed her fingers towards me and winked before grabbing her headphones. "I'll text you later." After, she sat down on her seat and continued to rock her head and jam out to her tunes.

Last, but not least, Sunny Flare managed to catch me glimpsing back to her and Sour Sweet and sent a little wave of her fingers, along with a flirty smile.

"Lemon Zest can be a little loud…" Faith mentioned beside me. "But she's still a better love option than Sunny Flare." She searched through her bag and pulled out a pair of earbuds. Poking them into the phone she had on hand, she raised her phone towards me. "Speaking of music, how about we listen to some while we're waiting?"

As far as I knew, Faith was the only girl I knew that also liked to listen to soundtracks from certain games we'd play together. A lot of people liked to listen to hot hits from the radio and stuff, but, to me, video game soundtracks were more than often underrated.

I happily accepted her offer and placed an earbud to my ear. "Sounds good."

Faith giggled as she began flicking her finger across her phone screen. "Pun intended?"

Truth be told, I hadn't even realized what I said. "That's up to you." I responded, regardless.

By the time we had begun listening, the bus had been running its engine while waiting for the last of the students to board. Eventually, we began moving, and for a short moment, it sort of felt as if we were heading on a field trip together.

* * *

Even though Faith and I had been staring out the bus windows for some time, it seemed the both of us had been stuck in our absent thoughts. We hadn't been truly paying attention to what was going on outside the windows, so it took us a while to realize when the bus had stopped.

Faith began removing the earbuds from our ears once we noticed the majority of people lining up to get off the bus. As she wrapped up the wires to place them back in her bag, she turned towards the window and remained uncomfortably quiet. The two of us were probably supposed to be getting ready to get up, but I remained sitting down until she'd say or do something first.

"It's really strange…" She finally spoke as she kept her eyes calmly glued to the glass. "While we were still at Crystal Prep, I didn't feel all that worried, but now that we're here, I can't help but start feeling a little nervous." She turned her head to face me. "It doesn't help that the more I try not to think about it, the closer my stomach is to doing somersaults."

"Just keep what I said in mind." I advised. "If anyone _does_ recognize or remember you, I don't think they'll be bothering you."

"Mm…" Faith pursed her lips to the side, revealing an expression of doubt. "I'm going to stick to you like glue. That's for sure."

"Hey, that's what I'm here for." I stood up from my seat and held out my hand. "Come on."

Faith had been staring back at me with a slightly agape jaw as she hugged her schoolbag close to her chest. Afterwards, she managed to form a small smile as she accepted my gesture. "Okay." She returned as she clasped my hand with hers. "I'm counting on you."

We hadn't even noticed that Twilight and the others had stepped off the bus until we were already out of our seats. There was hardly anyone left, so the good thing was that we were able to walk through without any trouble.

Outside, Faith attempted to calm and release her nerves by taking in a few deep breaths and slowly exhaling them out with closed eyes. "I'm fine." She repeated. "I'm fine." Once she opened them, she appeared to look over her old school once more. "Geez… It feels like it's been forever, but I can almost remember my first day here. I was so excited then…"

"Before what happened happened," I began to subtly recall the event that caused her to move schools. "How was being at this school like?"

She turned to me as she recollected her thoughts of her past life here. "I could say it was a lot friendlier than Crystal Prep, that's for sure. Still, you had your usual cliques and groups of people who shared the same interests and stuff. Either way, my time here was almost what I dreamed it would be. I had joined the baking club because it was one of the few things I _really_ enjoyed doing. I met a couple of cool friends there, and eventually, I came across that one guy I had a crush on. I had even thought that it was only a matter of time before we'd…you know…go out. I never thought my dreams would come spiraling down like that, so I had been really caught off guard. I guess you could say I even almost thought it was the end of the world for me. Other than all that baggage, this school was seriously pretty cool, but you know what? I'm glad I left it all because I got to meet you." She decided to grin heartily as she spoke the next few words. "We had been best friends before we even actually officially met, remember?"

"How could I forget?" I stretched out my arms and placed my hands behind my head. "I never thought we'd meet in real life like we did, but I can't tell you how grateful I am. I guess you could say you brought color into my life."

Faith adverted her eyes towards the ground and lightly rubbed her right arm with her left hand. Her cheeks softly began to glow before she noticed our classmates to the side. "We can reminiscence later. I think we need to line up with the others."

"Oh, right." I agreed as soon as I had noticed the other students waiting around as Dean Cadance spoke with someone else that I assumed was a staff member of this high school. Dean Cadance began walking aside the line, poking her finger out as she counted each of the students and compared them towards what had been on her clipboard.

She unexpectedly paused in front of us and turned left and right before she faced us. "Have you two seen Twilight around?"

Faith and I took the time to look at our surroundings to notice that Twilight wasn't anywhere near us.

"She was with us in the bus…" Faith mentioned.

Dean Cadance sighed as she crossed her arms. "Oh, Twilight…" She turned her head towards the school and tapped her chin. "I wonder if she went to go find a bathroom or something… She could have at least told me."

"You did look like you were a little busy." I brought up the fact that she had been speaking with someone else earlier pretty intently.

"I'm sorry to ask, but could you two see if you can find her? Every student from Crystal Prep is going to have to check in at the gym shortly, and I can't have anyone lost or stuck somewhere they're not supposed to be."

"What if we don't find her?" I considered the possibility.

"Hopefully, it doesn't come to something like that." Dean Cadance trusted as she placed her hands on her hips. "We know that Twilight isn't the type of person to cause some kind of mischief or anything, so if you can't find her, I'm sure she'll find her own way back here. Either way, we can't have any students wandering around without any supervision, understand?"

"Yeah, I guess so." I answered. It was a good thing that Twilight wasn't known for causing trouble, so I'm pretty sure she had her reasons for leaving unexpectedly. "Let's get going, Faith."

Faith remained heavily silent for a moment before she revealed a hesitating expression to me. "Can I just, you know, hang around here and wait for you to come back?"

As much as I understood Faith's worries, I kind of needed her to come with me. "If Twilight went to go look for a bathroom, you're the only one who can go inside the girls' restroom to check, you know?"

Faith sighed and nodded. "Right…" She kept to herself for a few seconds before she opened her bag and maneuvered her hand through a few things. When she caught a hold of something, she pulled it out and stretched it over her head. It was one the designer caps she'd wear occasionally when we'd go out in the city during our days off. However, she purposely pulled down the bill as much as she could towards her face without looking too out of place. "Do I look okay?"

"Um…" I rubbed my chin as I didn't know exactly what to say. "You're…trying to hide yourself from everyone?"

"Duh…" She shifted her eyes towards the side as she crossed her arms and looked visibly upset. "I don't want to do this…but I'd really rather avoid any attention from anyone I might've known here from before."

Seeing how the way she positioned her cap was enough to make her presence uninviting, I decided to fix her hair a bit myself so it wouldn't seem that bad. "Aside from looking a little…weird, I guess it's alright. I don't know what you're going to do later, though. Grinch isn't going to be happy to see you ruining dress code with that cap."

"This is just for right now." She explained. "We're the only Crystal Prep students that are going to be in there, so we're going to stand out a like a couple of peacocks. Once we're back with the others, I'll blend in a little more, right?"

"I guess so." I responded. "Let's go try to find the bathrooms, come on." As soon as I had begun walking, Faith immediately wrapped her arms around mine and huddled behind me like an extremely shy girl. I found the way she clung to me a little uncomfortable, and it was probably because of the position my arm had to be in for her to hold on to. Nevertheless, if any of it helped her feel less nervous, I wasn't going to complain at all. Faith kept her head down as we passed a few students at the front of the school building. They seemed to glance towards us, but it was only for a few seconds before they looked straight ahead.

Surprisingly, we didn't attract any more attention than we usually would with people we didn't know. The majority of students walking inside usually kept to themselves or were too busy talking with their friends. Every now and then, a stray student would notice us walking, but they didn't seem to make anything of it. After having walked in the halls with Faith for a while, I figured that they probably already knew that Crystal Prep was coming for a visit for the competition that was apparently such a big deal. I didn't bother going through any flights of stairs and continued roaming through the hallways. We were bound to come across the bathrooms at some point.

I pointed the doors out when I believed I finally found them. "Oh, look, they're right there, Fai—" I unexpectedly felt a hard tug on my arm and found myself practically being thrown against the lockers nearby. I looked past my shoulder to find Faith keeping an eye out straight across me. She had completely buried herself behind me for some odd reason. "What was that for?!" I softly exclaimed.

"It's him…!" Faith pointed out in front of me. I faced my eyes in her direction and noticed someone headed in the opposite direction. He had been focusing on what looked like to be his guitar case. I was pretty sure that he wouldn't have noticed Faith, had she been standing right next to me, but it didn't look like she was taking any chances whatsoever. "That's the guy…that I used to like."

"Huh. Really?" I found myself observing his appearance. I supposed I was curious in learning the kind of guy Faith was into at the time. His blue hair appeared to be styled back with gel, and he wore a light unzipped jacket with a white shirt underneath. From what I could see, there was a symbol of lightning and shield on that shirt.

"Quit looking!" Faith gave me a push from behind. "He'll see us!"

"You keep whispering like that, you'll probably get his attention for sure." I warned over my shoulder.

It didn't take long for him to grow safely out of range. When Faith felt it was good enough, she scurried out from behind and sighed lightly. "Let's go. I don't want to be here any longer than I need to be."

"Door's right there." I pointed out the door with the dress-wearing stick figure. "Just take a quick look around and see if there's any stalls closed, you know."

"Yeah, yeah…" She mumbled under her breath and nearly dragged her shoes as she uncertainly walked towards the door. I carefully watched after her until she was past the swinging door. As much as I didn't want to leave her on her own, there might as well be a magical barrier keeping me out.

I looked around for a while and took notice on how friendly every student was toward each other. It was so unlike Crystal Prep, I actually felt kind of jealous. At the same time, I even felt a little angry when I started to remember how badly my parents pushed me to go to Crystal Prep.

I felt my hand balling into a fist, but I was able to calm myself down when I remembered one of the main perks of being at Crystal Prep. That was being with Faith. I wasn't sure if I would have been as close to Faith as I was now, had I not attended Crystal Prep. Nevertheless, I found myself shaking those kinds of thoughts away as they were beginning to feel troublesome.

Soon after, I found Faith cautiously stepping out of the bathroom and returning to me.

"Find her?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I don't think she's in there."

"You think she already found her way back to the group?"

"I really don't know." Faith responded.

Wondering what we should do next, I looked around and thought silently to myself for a bit. "Alright. Let's just circle around and see if we find her on the way back. If we don't, then I guess we'll just check back with Dean Cadance. If Twilight still isn't there, well…guess we'll see what happens then."

Faith nodded her head, but I could tell she just wanted to get out of the school as soon as possible. She continued to huddle close to me as I led her through the many locker-sided hallways. We didn't find much of a lead on Twilight's whereabouts until we suddenly heard a somewhat familiar sound of a dog barking.

We turned towards a room with an entrance holding double doors. However, one of the doors had been completely opened, and we were allowed a look inside once we reached the doorway. There had been a girl just past this open door that was unmistakably Twilight, seeing as she was wearing our school's uniform. But, for some reason, a group of girls wearing out of the ordinary outfits surrounded her, and I began thinking that maybe she wasn't exactly so immune to causing some kind of commotion with the rival school.

"Twilight." I called, hurrying inside the room just in case she was in some kind of pickle. "Dean Cadance is calling for you outside. We have to check in with the other students."

It wasn't uncommon that anyone in a room would immediately look at the person coming in, but I found myself in a pretty uncomfortable situation when all the girls that had been huddling around Twilight were now staring directly at me. It was almost as if they had seen a ghost.

Before I could possibly say something, they strangely began speaking within themselves.

"No way. Do you think it's…?"

"What? No. He looks way different."

"What about the girl behind him?"

"Wait a second!" A loud one that wore some kind of western get-up shouted and pointed a finger straight at me. "I remember him! He was the delivery guy back when we had that sleepover at my place!"

"What?" Another girl with a southern accent questioned. "How in the hay do you know that?"

"His eyes! Duh!"

As soon as that girl had mentioned me having delivered something to them, I immediately began realizing why that sounded so familiar. It wasn't a job, but I had actually delivered a pizza as a favor for my sister. She worked at this pizza place part-time, and she needed someone to do a quick delivery because the guy that normally did those left his shift early. Seeing as I had been visiting her at the time, she asked me to do it since I had my bike with me. In exchange, Faith and I earned ourselves a free pizza.

The girl that pointed me out was the one that answered the door when I arrived with the pizza, and the girls around her must had been her friends that were causing quite a commotion in the background. I suppose it made me all the more recognizable since I still had been wearing my Crystal Prep uniform at the time.

"Oh, yeah! You're right!" Another shouted out.

I wasn't as sensitive as Faith was with my eyes, but I wasn't exactly found of being the center of attention like this.

"What about her?" One of them pointed past me. "She looks like Spirit!"

"Spirit?" Another inquired about.

I turned back towards Faith to see how she had been handling the situation. She had slightly lifted her head up to see who had been asking about her, but her eyes widened and she grew uncomfortably still for a silent moment. In the next second, she immediately removed herself out of sight and hid behind the column at the side of the doorway.

"Is your name Alex, by any chance?" The ecstatic one approached me a little too closely and asked.

"Alex, what?" I had been absolutely puzzled by what they had been blabbering about and by the names they oddly brought up. I couldn't help but think that they were a part of some fanatic fiction club, and that they had been obsessing over possibly some characters they were far much into. "No!"

Just before things could escalate into an abnormal amount of crazy, we heard a strict voice calling out at Faith.

"Faith Meadows? Just what are you doing here?" I quickly turned around and found that the Grinch had been walking with another staff member presumably from this school. "And just what are you wearing? You should know that that is not acceptable according to the dress code."

"I was—"

Faith tried to explain herself, but the person Grinch had been walking with noticed Twilight nearby and unexpectedly called her as if she had known her. "Twilight?"

I didn't blame Twilight when she groaned in frustration. "This is getting ridiculous!"

Taking notice of Twilight's presence among us, Principal Grinch seemed to let Faith off the hook for now. She walked over to Twilight and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I must apologize for the curiosity of my prized student."

" _Your_ student?" The one that accompanied our principal questioned oddly.

"The smart ones are always curious." Grinch attempted to explain while managing to keep her cool and sharp composure. "I'll return her, along with the rest of these stray students, to check in with the rest of their classmates." As she led Twilight along, she glanced towards us. "Come along."

Only we were able to decode the disappointment and anger that had been hiding behind that sophisticated and professional look on her face she always wore, no matter the occasion. Obviously, it would be foolish to make her even angrier, so we decided to follow along until she took us back to the front of the school.

"I'm sorry, Principal Cinch." Twilight apologized as we exited the front doors and headed towards our group. "I was just following these strange readings. Actually, they led me to those girls and—"

"Go on, you two." Grinch held Twilight back as she turned towards us. "I must speak to Twilight privately."

I wasn't sure if we were going to get scolded later, but we didn't want to make things worse for us any more than they probably were. We didn't question her order or hang back. As much as I didn't like leaving Twilight alone like that, I knew that she'd be alright, seeing as she was our principal's most "prized" student.

"You think we're in trouble?" Faith asked as we returned to the group.

"Us, probably." I looked over my shoulder to find Grinch possibly lecturing Twilight behind us. "Twilight will be fine." I turned back to Faith and noticed that she had still been wearing her cap. "You might want to take that off before she comes back."

Faith shifted her eyes upwards and took notice of the bill personally providing shade for her pupils. "Oh, yeah. Right." She grabbed ahold of her cap and removed it to stuff it inside her bag. "I wonder what those 'strange readings' Twilight mentioned are all about."

"Just more of her science projects." I almost instantly returned. She was always spending her time on research and the like, so it wasn't at all a surprise for me. Nevertheless, I was more concerned about Faith after remembering the kind of reaction she had with the girls. "What about you? Why'd you go and hide like that with those girls? Did you see someone you knew?"

She anxiously rubbed her arm as she looked away. "Yeah... You could say that."

I tried thinking back and remembering how those certain girls looked. The only one I could quite clearly remember was the pink one who pointed me out and answered the door back during my delivery. _But_ there was another girl that was there that wouldn't get out of my head. I couldn't clearly remember the way she looked, but there _was_ something about her that seemed familiar. However, I couldn't pick what it was at the moment, and it began to bug the heck out of me.

"Hey, you two." We found Dean Cadance approach us. "How did it go? Did you find her?"

"Just about." I answered. "She's over with Principal Cinch right now."

"I hope she isn't in any kind of trouble." Dean Cadance worriedly looked over us to find Twilight beginning to walk past Grinch and head our way. "You two go on ahead and follow your classmates to the gym. I still have a few things I need to check off here, but I'll be sure to let Twilight know where she needs to go."

We took notice of Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare heading off in a certain direction, so we prepared to follow along after acknowledging Dean Cadance. "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

Inside the gymnasium, we found a bunch of students from both our schools scattered about. Nevertheless, it appeared that everyone from our school was keeping to themselves. There was a huge banner on top of the stage between both of our school flags, and, by the words that were literally painted on there, it was supposed to welcome our school's arrival. But, it was pretty clear that no one from Crystal Prep was willing to return the friendly gesture.

"Oh, geez…" Faith squeaked once she was able to get a good look around. "Um, let's go over there…" She pointed towards a particular corner of the bleachers they had. Before I knew it, Faith grabbed ahold of my hand like a lost little girl and guided me to where she wanted to sit. Once we were there, she wiped the back of her skirt and sat as she held it against her thighs.

The two of us looked at the center of the gym and observed how the other students behaved down there. Our school practically looked miserable to be here, and Canterlot High appeared as if they had no idea how to react properly. In a way, I was pretty glad that we were out of our classes, but at the same time, everything here was kind of a drag.

"What was the point of coming here, anyway?" Faith poked her eyes over her knees as she hugged her legs towards her chest. "This looks like it's supposed to be a welcome party, but our school looks like they want to rip everyone else to pieces."

"They're super competitive, I guess." I assumed. "These 'Friendship Games' start tomorrow."

A heavy sigh came shortly after.

"I just want to go home already." Faith admitted. "I want to change out of this stupid uniform and just fall on my bed."

I couldn't imagine how hard it was for her to come to the school she grew to dread. I tried thinking of ways to cheer her up, but I was sort of drawing blanks. My eyes roamed around the gymnasium and found that they had set up a few snacks and drinks on different tables. Although, they were mostly vegetables and cheeses. "You want anything here to eat or drink?" I asked.

"Mm-mm." She mumbled as she softly shook her head.

I wasn't sure if she just didn't have an appetite, or if she found the choice of food pretty bland, but all I could do was sit back and wait for things to move along. In fact, I didn't even know what exactly we were waiting for. Based on how the stage had been set up, I assumed someone was supposed to come up and talk.

I decided to pass the time by continuing to watch everyone else. Faith, on the other hand, appeared to be listening to music on her phone to most likely keep her mind off her current worries. Eventually, I noticed Twilight finally come into the gym, but she was keeping herself busy was something else entirely.

I didn't pay too much attention to it before, but I had noticed that she had been wearing some kind of electronic device around her neck. Based on her track record, it was probably something that she had made during all those hours of studying and researching stuff that you normally wouldn't think a teenage girl would be all over about.

She had been staring so intently at her device as if it had been some kind of magical compass, and she continuously bumped into different things, including other students, in the process. I remained in my seat as I found no point in even trying to walk down and talk to her as she'd most likely just excuse herself to continue with her work.

However, it wasn't until a familiar-looking girl approached her with arms crossed. I noticed that this girl had been accompanied by those other girls I had come across earlier today with Faith, but my eyes were particularly set on _her_. She was the one I couldn't quite get out of my head, and seeing the kind of attitude she appeared to give Twilight, something immediately clicked in my head.

I remembered the video I forced myself to finish watching back on Faith's laptop. This same girl had been crossing her arms like she had a sense of superiority. I didn't have concrete evidence that this girl and the one that framed Faith as a thief were the same person, but I was still more than sure it had to be. She looked like she was ready to bring trouble, and I couldn't let Twilight be a victim of that too.

"I'll be back." I told Faith as I stood up and began making my way down the bleachers. I watched that one specific girl as if everything else in my peripheral vision was blurred and out of focus. They didn't seem to notice me until I stepped in and made myself heard. "What's going on here?" I asked a little defensively.

"Oh, hey!" The pink one pointed out. "It's him again!"

"Yeah," I pushed myself to take on a friendlier tone. "I was just wondering about something." I looked straight towards my intended target. "You wouldn't happen to be Sunset Shimmer, would you?"

It wasn't a surprise when she turned towards her friends as she most likely found it a strange thing coming from me.

"…have we met before?" She asked.

So, it's a yes then, huh?

"Of course, we did! Remember?! Back in the music room?" Her energetic friend reminded.

"I know that, Pinkie." She responded. "I'm talking about before that." She shook her head in frustration and looked back at me. "How do you know my name?"

I felt the tone in my voice constrict as I also felt the bottled aggression in me slipping out bit by bit. "Do you know a girl named Faith?"

I wasn't sure what kind of reaction I had been expecting, but she only stared at me in silence for a moment. I couldn't tell if she honestly didn't remember Faith, or if she just didn't know what to say. Either way, I wasn't going to budge until I heard some kind of answer come from her lips.

"Her name…sounds familiar." I finally received.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't start badgering at her in front of every single person in this gym. If anything, it'd probably make it worse on Faith, and we'd find ourselves being the subject of another video online.

"Who _are_ you?" She added, looking at me as if I had been causing some unwarranted complications in her life.

Before I could decide on how to respond to that, someone else unnecessarily butted in as if we had been in a heated argument. "Who wants to know?!" It was Indigo Zap from the bus ride, and she had been pointing out an aggressive finger towards Sunset Shimmer.

I wasn't sure if she was defending me or more likely the school in general.

"Um, we do." That rainbow-haired girl in Sunset Shimmer's group brashly countered.

"All right, everyone." Another with the southern accent stepped in as if to deescalate the situation before it got any worse. "Let's not get too competitive before the games even start."

At that point, I didn't think that my one little confrontation would spark a firestorm between Canterlot High School and Crystal Prep.

"The games aren't really competitive since _we've_ never lost." Sugarcoat bluntly threw in.

"That's not a very nice thing to say." From the other side, a girl with a soft-spoken voice responded while adverting her eyes away.

"Sorry, dearie." Sunny Flare had found her way in and placed a hand on my shoulder as she turned towards the competition. "But these games aren't about being nice."

"Well, you might use a _little_ tact." A girl that I'd label as a 'fashionista' tossed her cards onto the table.

"You know what? Forget what I said." The girl with the cowboy hat seemed to regret. "How about we introduce ourselves? My name is Applejack, and these here girls are Sunset Shimmer, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie-" She pointed out her respective friends, but her sentence was cut short all of a sudden when it looked like she couldn't find the last girl she stopped at. "Well, I don't know where in the hay she ran off to." She observed her surroundings as she scratched her head.

For some reason, Sunny Flare felt the liberty to plant her arms on my shoulders and lean against me. "I'm afraid introductions are a waste of time, dearie."

"There'd be no point if we're going to forget about you when the games are over." Sugarcoat shared.

"If you think you're going to win so easily, think again!" Rainbow Dash appeared to make a beckoning gesture towards us.

"Oh, we are going to leave you in the _dust_!" Indigo Zap emphasized.

Before I thought their competitive spirits could even get more annoying, we heard the stage microphone being tapped until a new voice was being broadcasted to everyone in the gym.

"Hello, everyone! I'd like to take this opportunity to greet all of our visitors from Crystal Prep Academy and welcome them to CHS." The same woman I had seen walking with Principal Grinch was the one in front of the microphone. "And lastly, I would like to recognize the twelve students that CHS has elected to compete. I don't think we could have chosen a better group to represent the excellence, sportsmanship, and friendship the games stand for."

When she had mentioned about 'representing friendship', I couldn't help but think back to the exact reason Faith and I had been chosen to represent Crystal Prep. It ticked me off a little knowing that that's what we were only good for, apparently according to our own principal, but in the end, this competition didn't mean much to me to begin with.

Faith and I had been through a lot of out of the ordinary events throughout this day so far, but before a few calm minutes could pass, there was a spontaneous change to the party environment. The lights had suddenly dimmed, and there was now a revolving disco ball hanging from the ceiling. There was a change in the music and atmosphere, and before I realized it, students from Crystal Prep seemed to be getting along with Canterlot.

It was hard to believe what I had been seeing, but I was most definitely awake. How was it that they hated each other just a while ago, but now they were sharing cupcakes that appeared out of thin air like magic?! If that wasn't enough, there was yet another surprise that literally made an explosive appearance. Confetti fell from the sky, and everyone I could see was on the dance floor having a good time.

What the what?!

Having to squeeze through a few people, I immediately made my way back over to Faith. She hadn't moved from her seat, but she appeared to be staring at the sight I had witnessed up close just a minute ago.

"Faith, are you seeing this?!" I asked for confirmation.

"How can't I?" She answered without looking away. "We're not dreaming, are we?"

"As far as I'm concerned, we're not."

We continued observing the crowd for a short moment of silence before Faith spoke up again.

"Everyone's so distracted… I might just sneak down there and get one of those cupcakes that appeared out of nowhere."

Before Faith could even have the chance to follow on her wish, there was a loud feedback noise coming from the microphone onstage. I had almost been expecting for it to be the same woman. Instead, this magical improvement of the old dull and bland party came to stop once we heard the mean Grinch speak.

"I'd like to thank Principal Celestia for her unconventional welcome. It's been four years since the last Friendship Games, but it feels as though nothing has changed. Canterlot High continues to pick its competitors in a popularity contest and Crystal Prep continues to field its top twelve students." Haha. That's rich. "It is a comfort to know that even after so many years of _losses_ , your school remains committed to its ideals, however _misguided_ they may be. I wish you all the best of luck, regardless of the inevitable outcome."

And just like that, the atmosphere returned towards it's dull and even hostile state. I looked around and found Sunset Shimmer sticking with her friends. I didn't know what her game was, and I didn't know what I was going to do about her. On one hand, I wanted justice for what she had done to Faith, but I didn't know how to come about that in the first place. When I really thought about that, I didn't even know if it was possible. We were just guests from Crystal Prep, and after the Friendship Games, that would be the end of it. I supposed all I could do was bottle up my anger and give it to her straight if I was ever allowed the chance.

I caught Faith staring worriedly at me the entire time I had been eyeing Sunset Shimmer from the distance.

"Chase. Why were you talking with that girl?" She asked as if I had been having malicious intentions.

At that point, I was conflicted over a couple of decisions. I wasn't sure if I should just lie to her and tell her it was nothing, or if I should just tell her the truth. With the kind of friendship we had, I wasn't sure if I could keep my feelings to myself. The two of us told each other practically everything, so I felt that telling her the truth would be the best thing to do.

"I know who she is, Faith." I turned to her with a serious look on my face.

"W-what do you mean?" She questioned, but I believed she knew what I had been talking about.

"She's the one who ruined your life here in CHS." I reminded directly. "She's the one who had you move to Crystal Prep, and she's the one who screwed things up with that boy you had a crush on."

I heard her gasp both sharply and softly. There was somewhat a look of horror on her face as she stared at me for a few silent seconds, but then she slowly turned away and stared at the floor. "Just leave it be… What happened happened."

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think there's much I could honestly do." I told her. "But, I can't promise that I won't hold back if she pushes me over the line." Faith remained silent, whether she was waiting for me to say anything else, or if she just didn't have anything to say at all. "I won't let her hurt you or anyone else again."

* * *

Aside from a few mundane things, we didn't really do anything else with our first trip to Canterlot High. It was somewhat of a good thing that, from what I saw, no one really bothered Faith in regards to being here the first half of her freshman year. I can't read minds, so I can't say that no one possibly remembered Faith and talked behind her back. I can't guarantee that there aren't any rumors and gossip being spread around the school now. Sunset Shimmer may even be working on an attempt to ruining my school life too somehow. However, despite my first impression being dragged down by Crystal Prep, I hoped that Canterlot High wasn't all bad as Sunset Shimmer made it seem.

Faith and I were pretty much quiet the entire bus ride back home. She offered to share her music with me again, but she didn't say much after that. Dean Cadance was right when she said that we'd be back at the end of the day, and we were already getting ready to leave school once we got off those charter buses.

As I walked silently towards my bike, Faith lagged a little behind like a stray puppy instead of being by my side like usual. I had been unlocking and fixing up my bike for us to ride before Faith spoke up all of a sudden.

"I'm surprised you hardly talked to Twilight today." She mentioned.

"Am I supposed to?" I responded, aware that that may have come across a little too cold myself.

"Just thought that you might have wanted to try talking to her more since she was practically with us the entire day." I heard her shoes kick the ground below us.

"It doesn't matter." I furrowed my eyebrows in anger as I pulled my bike out of the stands. "Even if she's not locked up in that room of hers, she's still too busy with whatever work she's always making up." I stared at my seat for a moment before I continued speaking. "I'll probably just give up with her."

There was a short gasp behind me. I turned and noticed Faith remaining still as her concerned gaze had been fixed on me. I had been waiting for her to take her seat on my bike, but I supposed I had also been waiting for her response.

"Are you sure that's what you want to do…?" She finally asked.

I released a heavy felt sigh and turned away. "I don't even know. I guess I just don't want to think about her right now." After thinking to myself absent-mindedly for a minute, I turned back to Faith. "Come on. Let's go home."

Once she accompanied me on the back seat of my bicycle, I began pedaling down the sidewalk towards the direction of home. As I felt the surprisingly cool breeze brush against my face, I could feel Faith's arms tighten around my waist. I thought I began to hear depressive noises come from her, but with the sound of traffic and the wind, I couldn't be sure.

* * *

After Faith threw on her 'at-home' clothes, she laid on her bed with her body sprawled out. I took notice of the uniform she left messily piled up at the side of her bed. With a little sigh, I decided to crouch down and pick those clothes up. Faith wasn't a messy person or anything. I assumed she just didn't really care much for her uniform.

I began to fold them up as neatly as I could, but I had been shortly taken aback when I found an extra piece of clothing hidden underneath Faith's shirt. I wasn't expecting to see _that_ among the group of her uniform, but I decided to just man up and finish what I started. It wasn't exactly the first time I had to do laundry for someone other than myself.

Once I was done with her used clothes, I placed them away and turned back to the bed to see Faith in the same position. I wasn't sure if she had fallen asleep. Before I could check on her, I heard of whip of thunder off in the distance. I turned towards the window to notice that the sky had suddenly grown dark, and it only took a short while before rain began falling against the glass.

"I wasn't expecting it to rain…" I stated softly. Having received no response from Faith, I walked over to the side of her bed and sat down. There, I gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "You still awake?"

"…mm…"

I knew she hadn't been acting as chipper as she usually was, but I was stuck wondering if what happened at her old school today was more of a bother for her than I thought. "You okay?" I asked.

She managed to pull up her head and turn to the side to look at me. "I'm just tired… I kind of want the week to end already. No. I want school to be over already."

"It'll be over before you know it." I told her. "We've made it this far without too much of a problem. We can handle the rest."

She began to push herself up as a heavy sigh escaped from her lips. "I think I'm going to go take a bath…" She removed herself from bed and began searching through her drawers for a change of clothes.

"Try not to fall asleep in there." I mentioned, noticing how much she looked like she wanted to keep her eyes shut.

After Faith moved to the bathroom, I decided to roam around downstairs. I kept an eye out of one of the windows at the front of the house and just let myself be hypnotized with the rain. The week was nearing its end, and all we had to really worry about was the Friendship Games, if anything. Faith had really been bummed out about the entire situation with her old school, and I wanted to do something to cheer her up. After doing a little thinking, I decided that I wanted to take her out for ice cream or something when school finishes for the week. Usually, when we went out to find something to do together, I would normally try inviting Twilight every now and then, but after so many failed attempts, I considered not even bothering at this point anymore.

If she wanted to be alone with work and research, then I'll just let her be.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I heard the sound of car beeping right outside on the driveway. Making sure I hadn't been seeing things, I scanned the area outside the window and realized that Faith's mom's car had been there. I wasn't sure if she had an umbrella with her, but I raced over to the corner near the front door and picked out one of the umbrellas stationed at the stand.

Afterwards, I jogged out the front door and opened the umbrella up above me. I noticed that her mom had already been opening her door and stepping out, so I quickly made my way over to her, almost slipping along the way.

"Wasn't expecting you to be home so soon, Mrs. Meadows." I surprised her as soon as she had just finished stepping out and closing the car door.

"And I wasn't expecting you to rush out here all of sudden." She chuckled as soon as her eyes had relaxed after being shot open by my sudden appearance. "You weren't doing anything bad with my daughter, were you?"

A wave of heat suddenly hit me as I unnecessarily stammered in responding back. "W-what?! Of course not!" Even though I had already expected it to be a joke, just the thought of it caused fragments of uninvited images.

She laughed out loud this time, due to my reaction, and seemed to notice the umbrella I had been carrying. "How sweet. You were going to escort me in?"

"I just thought it'd be a nice thing to do." I responded after brushing off any other unwanted emotions.

"You didn't need to, but thank you very much."

I hovered the umbrella a little more towards her side to make sure she was covered as much as possible. She still had her suit on for work, so it was better that she didn't get _too_ wet. I had already taken off my blazer inside, so it wasn't such a big deal for me.

"I'm home, Faith!" Her mom exclaimed from the front door.

"I think she's in the bath." I mentioned, remembering what she had told me before I came down here.

"Anything happen at school today?" She asked a little oddly, as if what I said was some kind of clue.

"What makes you ask that?" I responded.

"She usually doesn't bathe this early." She explained. "It doesn't look like you two were caught in the rain before getting here," She observed my uniform as she said this, "so I'm thinking she probably wanted to calm herself and relieve some stress."

"Well, it's kind of complicated." I tried explaining the situation. "You see, we sort of got roped into this competition called the Friendship Games, and it's a thing between Crystal Prep and her old school Canterlot High."

"I got a call earlier today." She mentioned as she placed her bag away. "I didn't know you two had entered those Friendship Games."

"Our principal promised that she'd make sure we'd graduate as long as we still worked hard." I crossed my arms as I thought back. "Before we accepted, I asked Faith if she was cool with it, since we'd going to her former school, but she said she was fine with whatever I wanted to do. I thought it'd be nice for us to have a worry-free chance at graduating, so…I accepted it. But, I'm a little worried for Faith. I wouldn't have an idea on how she feels about this overall, since I've never experienced what she went through. We visited the school today, and she was trying so hard to hide from anyone that might've recognized or known her."

Faith's mom gave a slow sigh through her nose as she adverted her eyes to the side and appeared concerned. "She's always thinking about others over herself… I wish I could have done more for her."

"You do way more than enough." I felt the strong need to assure to her.

"I just wish I wouldn't have to work so much." She confided. "I'm glad that you're around to watch over her and be there when she needs someone."

"Of course…" I tried to express as if it wasn't a problem whatsoever. "What do you think I should do? Tomorrow's the day of the Friendship Games. I don't know what's going to happen, but I have a feeling we're going to interact with the other school a lot more than today. I don't know how she'll handle it."

"Hmm." She closed her eyes as she thought. "All I can really tell you is…just be there for her every second of the day. Make sure she doesn't think she's ever alone. If need be, tell her that I'd be happy to take the both of you out somewhere to eat once the week is over. I'm sure she'll be excited for that."

That offer earned a chuckle from me. "That might just do the trick. Yeah. No worries. I promise I'll stick with her."

She exchanged a warm smile with me before we heard someone at the top of the stairs.

"You're already home, mom?"

Having been at the very top, Faith began to walk down the stairs as she massaged her hair with a white towel. She had been wearing a fresh set of comfortable clothes.

"I got off early today." Her mother clarified with a bright smile.

"I wouldn't exactly call it early…" Faith met us at the bottom of the stairs.

"I'm here right now, aren't I?" Her mom attacked her with an unexpected hug, causing Faith to drop the towel she had been carrying. "What do you want for dinner? I'll make anything you want!"

"It's…a little…hard…to tell you…if you're hugging…like—"

I felt a smile stretch at my lips. It was good to see Faith getting along with her mother so perfectly. I had to imagine that they _had_ to be close, considering that it was just the two of them here.

"I'll go get started." Her mom began heading towards the kitchen as Faith picked up the towel that had been dropped on the floor. She noticed me and approached me as she seemed to stare more at the towel on hand.

"Hey." She greeted. "Um, sorry for before. I'm feeling a little better now, I guess."

"I don't know what you're apologizing for." I replied. "You know that's one of the reasons why I'm here, right?"

"Hm." The corners of her lips lifted upwards as she appeared to think for a short moment. "I noticed you picked up my clothes and folded them. Thanks for doing that."

"No problem. It's really nothing."

She managed to brighten up her smile before she appeared to suddenly remember something. "Uh…um… Did you happen to see my…mm…?"

I couldn't help but let out a somewhat nervous laugh. "Uh, yeah. No need to get embarrassed about it though. My sister would always leave her clothes all around the bathroom for me to pick up. It's not exactly anything new."

"I better not hear any 'small' jokes from you…" She muttered as she pouted her lips and looked to the side.

"Huh?" I inquired, not quite hearing her clearly at first.

"Nothing. I'm going to go see if my mom needs help in the kitchen." She mentioned and left in a slightly hurried manner.

* * *

After dinner, Faith and I hung around in her room as her mom got some well-deserved rest. Faith was pretty quiet for the most part as she messed with her laptop. I, on the other hand, just kind of hung around her bed.

All I could hear were the soft taps and clicks from her keyboard until she finally spoke up. "What do you think we're going to do tomorrow, Chase?" She asked. "It's the day of the competition, right?"

"Yeah, I don't know…" I thought. "I don't think we were ever told anything about what we were going to do. Is it supposed to be a surprise or something?"

"Maybe. I guess." She decided before closing the lid of her laptop and turning her head to find me laying on her bed. "I'm a little nervous. I don't want it to be some crazy thing I know nothing about."

"It can't be _that_ bad." I believed. "We're just students, after all." I started thinking about the situation that seemed to be more distracting for Faith. "What about…the other thing? I figured you'd be more nervous about that then what's going to be in the competition."

"I need to stop worrying about that." She responded after sharing a heavy sigh. "It's so dumb. I just need to focus on the Friendship Games for both of our sake. I don't want to let you down because of me…"

"You won't." I assured and then shook my head. "I'm sure we'll do great. It _is_ called the Friendship Games after all. The activities we'll have to do deal a lot with teamwork, I'm betting."

Faith nodded her head. "Yeah. I'm sure everyone will be too busy trying to win instead of remembering that _one_ girl from freshman year. You're right. It's stupid to be fussing over that. I'm just making it out worse than it actually is."

"Remember." I reminded. "It's just one day, and then we're back to Crystal Prep. What can happen in one day?"

After fetching a look of determination, she smiled with fortitude. "Mm-hm." Afterwards, she surprised me when she lunged at me all of a sudden. "Thanks, Chase!"

"Anytime." I somewhat wheezed, seeing as she almost knocked the air out of me from her attacking embrace.

Once she pulled away, I observed her as her bare feet slightly dragged the bedsheets when she maneuvered across the bed. "I'm totes in the mood to shoot some zombies." She mentioned as she grabbed a couple of controllers by her TV. "You in?" She held one at me as she sent me the most inviting grin.

Being given the inspiration for an immediate 'yes', I happily accepted her offer.

If Crystal Prep always won these games every time for being super competitive and serious, then I had a feeling that we'd be just as good, if not better, for the crazy amount of teamwork we'd be willing to put in. If I can't get back at Sunset Shimmer myself, then at the very least, I can get back at her by creaming her in the Friendship Games.

We'll do great, Faith. I know we will.


	4. Games of Faith

**UsagiAngelRabbit: That Deviant Art was related to MLP stuff, especially with stuff that I wanted to get into but never had the chance to. I honestly doubt I will ever use it again, seeing as the only kind of work I do that's related to MLP is writing. However, when I hopefully get to my original work in the future, I might make a new DeviantArt for that. Or, I might not need to. We'll see what happens.**

 **Shadow Solaris: Yep. And I feel like I'll be able to put in even more when I hopefully get to work on my original stuff soon.**

 **oshawottlover: That's irony for you ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).**

 **Foreststar of WindClan: Yeah, who knows if we'll ever know what happened behind the scenes. At least with original work, I'd be able to properly decide the lore of the content, so to speak.**

 **Note: This was late due to life stuff, but I think the huge amount of content in this one makes up for it.**

* * *

For some reason, I found myself opening my eyes to a pitch-black room. Glancing towards the window, I noticed that it was obviously still dark outside. This, in turn, caused me to check my phone over at the side of the bed. The bright light I had encountered from turning on the screen blinded me, but once I was able to see the numbers beyond, I was surprised.

What was I doing up at four in the morning?

I didn't feel fully awake, nor did I feel absolutely exhausted. It was also kind of strange to find that I hadn't been woken up by Faith. In fact, I decided to see if maybe she had left the room, which would make waking up this early more sense. However, that wasn't the case when I found her sleeping beside me.

She had been on her side and facing me. As I observed her resting face, I began thinking back and reminiscing over the days we'd camp out together without any worry over school. Those nights we'd stay up and just talk about silly or deep things. We'd even talk about things you wouldn't expect a girl to normally talk about to a friend, especially a boy, but I had to assume the main reason for that was that she really had no one else to turn to. As mentioned before, it didn't really help that her mom worked most of the time, but I was glad that they'd at least spend time with each other during the weekends.

Either way, I was extremely grateful to have Faith in my life, as I know we benefit from each other mutually. I'd have no clue on how I'd be able to stand life on my own while struggling with a girl who hardly seemed to put any effort in communicating with you.

I unexpectedly heard a soft beep coupled with a vibration over on the other side of Faith. I looked around and found that it had come from her phone. I squinted my eyes at her screen and read that her phone had been close to dying. I sighed softly and began patting around her desk for her charger. I could only imagine how Faith would react in the morning if she found out that she had forgotten to charge her phone.

Chase! My phone's dead! There's no way I'll be able charge it enough before we get to school!

Oh, man. Especially if she doesn't realize until _right_ before we're about to take off.

As soon as I found her charger and plugged it in, I was immediately greeted with her home screen. From there, I was able to find the photo we had taken together as her background. Even though I had been the one to suggest and take this photo in the first place, I couldn't help but study it for a while. I could feel certain thoughts passing through my mind, but I hadn't been alert enough to pay much attention to them.

Hm.

I placed her phone on top of her desk and turned the screen off. I felt like I was spending more than enough time being up this early, and I didn't want to wake up super tired. After all, I was probably going to be woken up in a couple of hours anyway.

Just as I was about to let myself fall back onto bed, I suddenly remembered that Faith was still asleep. I shook my head in response to my nearly-made mistake and made sure to slip in as quietly as I could. Taking in one last huge yawn, I closed my eyes and tried getting back to sleep.

* * *

It literally felt like I had only been asleep for a few minutes when I heard Faith's voice waking me up. I especially hated the times when I could be sleeping for eight or more hours, and it turns out feeling like less than half an hour. In this case, I couldn't blame myself for wanting to keep my eyes shut despite how many times Faith called me.

"Come on, Chase. You can sleep in during the weekend, but we can't miss out on today."

I was willing to negotiate in getting up, but all I wanted were a few minutes. However, in order to combat my reluctance, Faith decided to slip the pillow away from underneath my head in hopes to at least get me up enough to take it back. Keeping my eyes closed and head on the bed, I patted around and searched for the pillow she had taken while softly grumbling to myself. Once I had caught ahold of something firm, I tightened my grip so I could take it back.

"Ch-ch-chase!" I heard Faith surprisingly yelp out after slipping out a sharp gasp.

Seeing as I couldn't even win a few minutes, I decided to finally push myself up. "Alright. Alright. I'm getting up." I sighed lightly as I held a hand to my head and opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was Faith in front of me. It appeared that she hadn't gotten dressed into her uniform yet, almost like if she just woke up herself. Nevertheless, there was a significant difference with the expression on her face. From what I could observe, her entire face was completely flushed, and she had been crossing her arms against her chest.

"What's up with you?" I asked. "I know I didn't want to get up right away, but I didn't think you'd be super mad about it."

"I-I-I'm not mad!" She refused, but the tone of her voice seemed to suggest otherwise. "It's nothing. Go do what you need to do back at your house and I'll see you here for breakfast…"

I stared at her for a short moment, extremely curious at her sudden reaction. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm f-f-fine!" She almost exclaimed out.

"Okay. Okay." I immediately disengaged and began walking out of her bedroom. "See you in a bit." I met Faith's mom on the way towards the front door. She had just started getting breakfast ready, and I told her that I'd be back later.

At home, I felt I might have stayed in the shower a little too long since I had been wondering why Faith seemed so upset all of a sudden. Was it _that_ time? Even so, she never really reacted like that before. I decided I could ask Faith about it later.

I was glad that today was the last day of the week that I'd be changing into a fresh Crystal Prep uniform. The thought of having a couple days of freedom motivated me to speed up the process of getting ready a little more. Just as I was about to leave my room, something on my table had caught my eye.

It was my video camera. The one you were able strap to your chest or head and record events in first person. After thinking about it for a short moment, I thought it'd be a neat idea to bring it along. I'd be able to record the events of the Friendship Games, and if we won, it'd especially be something nice to look back to. I believed that Grinch even mentioned something about Crystal Prep always winning every time, so…why not? I gathered all the necessary equipment into my small carrying case and brought it along with me.

Once I got back, I found Faith's mom still hanging around the kitchen, but I noticed that Faith was still missing. Usually, she'd be helping her mom right about now.

"Oh, Faith's not here?" I asked.

"No." She responded as she began to move over the food she had just finished making from the frying pan to a plate. "She _did_ wake up, right?"

"Yeah." I crossed my arms as I gave it some thought. "I'm pretty sure she wasn't falling back to sleep or anything. Maybe's she still getting ready."

She released a light sigh as she placed down the things she held onto the counter and washed her hands. "I'll go see what she's doing. Could you finish setting the table?"

"Sure." I noticed the stack of plates on the dining table and began to separate them as Faith's mom starting walking out the room.

Boy, Faith is _really_ being weird today.

I was surprised when her mom didn't come back into the kitchen by the time I finished setting up the table. Instead, I took a seat and patiently waited for someone to come back. My stray thoughts kept me busy until I suddenly heard a loud laughter coming from up the stairs. With a raised eyebrow, I shifted around and looked over the corner of the kitchen doorway.

To my surprise, it had been Faith's mom who was chuckling to her heart's content as she walked down the stairs. Faith had been trailing after her with a red face and an embarrassed frown. Either way, it looked like she was already dressed up and ready to go after breakfast.

"Mom, stop!" She pleaded. "It's not funny!"

"Oh, honey. You overreact too easily."

"But…"

They finally reached the table, and I was left wondering what in the world that commotion had been about.

"Did I miss something?" I asked.

Faith noticed me sitting at the table and almost immediately adverted her eyes in discomfiture.

"Oh, nothing at all." Her mother continued to chuckle when noticing Faith's reaction. "Go ahead and take a seat, Faith."

Faith looked over the empty seats present, and I found it extremely odd when she switched glances at the seat next to me and across me multiple times. It usually only took her a second to sit, but this time, it was as if she was given one of the most important decisions of her life. Finally, she plopped down on the seat next to me, but she continued to stare down at the table.

She couldn't still be upset about me not waking up, could she?

"You're acting _really_ weird today, Faith." I addressed while we waited for her mom to prepare the food. "What's going on?"

"I told you… I'm fine…" She virtually mumbled back, keeping her eyes downwards.

Breakfast was definitely quieter than usual, and as soon as Faith's mom had expressed her goodbyes and left, things were just dead silent. I didn't like this 'tension' between us, so I decided to invite her to be direct with me.

"If something's bothering you, you know you can tell me, right?" I approached. "Did I seriously make you mad this morning? If I did, I'm sorry."

Faith immediately shook her head. "You didn't make me mad. It's just…" She paused and appeared to think intensively over what to say next. "…you…caught me off-guard."

"'Caught you off-guard'?" I repeated, unable to understand her answer.

"I can't tell you." She responded with a heavy blush circling in her cheeks. "Let's just…get to school, okay? I promise I'm fine. I just need to…distract myself." She stood up and gathered our empty plates to wash them in the sink. "…can you go to my room and get my phone and schoolbag?"

"Yeah, sure." I tucked in the seat after getting up and began to walk up the stairs to her room. I noticed her phone had still been connected to her charger from earlier this morning. I disconnected it and picked up her bag before tending to mine. I dropped in the carrier bag for my camera and began heading back downstairs. Faith was waiting for me by the front door with her hands clasped between her thighs, and I walked over to her to hand her her bag and phone.

"Thanks." She responded a little more calmly.

"'Course. You ready?"

"Mm-hm."

Outside, she appeared to have short bursts of spacing out. As I brought out my bike and waited for her to get on, I decided to just give her a little time. When I really thought about it on the way to school, I eventually came to the conclusion that it was one of those things that only a girl could really understand.

"Hey… Can we make a stop here?" I heard behind me.

I carefully came to a stop on the block we had been on and looked around. We were right in front of the convenience store.

"You need something?" I asked.

"Just in the mood for chocolate. That's all."

"Chocolate?" I wondered as I got closer to the store. "It's still pretty early in the morning."

"Haven't you ever had chocolate or ice cream in the morning?" She responded. I couldn't remember a time I have, but I didn't argue against what she wanted. "You don't have to get off. I'll be in and out really quick." She mentioned as she hopped off her seat.

"Alright." I acknowledged as I watched her walk in.

I didn't know how long Faith was going to keep acting strange for, but apparently her mom didn't seem to see anything wrong with it. I began wondering if it was all because of the Friendship Games, but seeing as I couldn't do much, I hoped that her strange behavior would at least end after we got back home today.

* * *

When we arrived at school, we were allowed to get on our bus early again. Remembering that the bus had racks to bring a bike on, I took total advantage of it right before we boarded. After we had taken our seats, Faith searched through her bag and pulled out a candy bar. I merely sat there, absorbed in my own thoughts, until I noticed Faith bring something my way.

In front of me, there was a carefully unwrapped chocolate bar. She had already obviously taken a few bites out of it, but much of it still remained. I glanced over to Faith for a few seconds and noticed the expression on her face. I was hoping for a smile, but she appeared to have been sending me an embarrassed neutral frown instead. "…you want some?" She asked.

"I think I'm good." I politely refused.

Nevertheless, she seemed insistent for some reason. "Come on. I'm not sick or anything."

"Yeah, I know that, but…" It wasn't really worth making a big deal out of, so I decided to take her up on her offer. If it'd help undo her sudden behavior, then I would gladly take a bite. Subtly sinking my teeth into a piece of the chocolate, I returned it to her as I consumed whatever was left in my mouth. "Careful not to let your uniform get stained." I warned.

"I know…" She responded as she stared at her snack. She looked like she wanted to bring it to her lips to take another bite, but for some reason, she was hesitating.

"You know I'm not sick either, right?" I responded half-jokingly.

Turning to me as if a red crayon had been scribbled all over her cheeks, her response was rather emotionful. "I-I know!" Afterwards, she almost forcefully took another bite as if she had been trying to prove something to me. The tension in her body seemed to relax after taking a long look at the bitten chocolate she had been holding, and her lips appeared to be frazzled.

"Faith…" I slipped out.

When she heard that, she suddenly shook her head, and her lips formed an embarrassed smile. "S-sorry, Chase! I don't know what's gotten over me today! I'm so weird, right?"

I observed her face closely as she chuckled nervously. Her emotions appeared to be uncontrollable since this morning, and her craving for chocolate so early in the day? No way… Was she really…?

"Hey…" I began with a barrier of hesitation holding me back from being absolutely direct. "…is it _that_ time again for you?"

Her lips soon gave way into a lopsided grin as she stared back at me in silence. I could feel a cold bead of sweat race down the side of my head as I awaited her reaction. Maybe it was a mistake bringing it up?

"I'd be glad if _that_ explained it…" She surprisingly responded vaguely as she leaned back on her seat and searched through her bag.

"Explained what?" I asked, slightly leaning in as I yearned for an answer.

Faith shook lightly when she noticed how attentive I had grown towards her for that moment. "N-nothing. Let's just, um, listen to some music, okay?" She suggested as she pulled the strings of her earbuds out of her bag and connected them to her phone.

It wasn't long before groups of students began piling up at their reserved buses. Faith and I kept to ourselves for the most part until we were unexpectedly greeted.

"Hey, Chase. Hey, Faith."

The two of us turned to find Twilight taking her seat behind us.

"Oh, hey Twilight…" I answered while being in a little shock at Twilight's initiative.

"Hi." Faith returned an unusual half-hearted wave.

Besides the scattered sound of commotion that rose up every now and then on the bus, it was pretty much silent on the way towards Canterlot High School. Yesterday, this was due to Faith and I listening to music together. However, today, it seemed much more than that.

Only twelve of us were actually going to be competing in the Friendship Games. All of the other students from Crystal Prep would be watching instead. When we arrived at CHS, Faith and I were surprised to see us in confrontation with the twelve from the other school.

Before sparks could fly, the faculty from each school gathered together and spoke to us.

"Good morning, students." Canterlot High's principal announced. "I'm sure you're all as excited as we are to see the events of this year's Friendship Games unfold. However, before we officially start, Vice Principal Luna, Principal Cinch, Dean Cadance, and I will go over today's events and make sure each of us are caught up to speed with how they'll be handled."

"Sit tight, you guys." Dean Cadance mentioned next. "The Friendship Games will begin shortly."

After the four staff members walked off in the direction of the school, there was an immediate uneasy silence roaming among us. Just like back in the gym yesterday, our school and Canterlot High locked fiery glares with one another. Unless I was mistaken, it seemed that Faith, Twilight, and I were probably the only ones not caught up with this competitive mess.

Just as I had finished removing my bike from the bus, someone from Canterlot High School suddenly spoke up.

"You guys might think this is just going to be another easy win, but you're on _our_ turf now. We're not going to give up so easily!"

"The location doesn't matter." Sugarcoat returned as bluntly as ever. "What matters is that we have the experience and skills that you don't. _That's_ why we always win."

"Oh, so what you're saying is that you've fought three magical sirens bent on dominating our world?" A girl exclaimed in confidence.

It wasn't a surprise when our school, including me, reacted with puzzled looks. I'm sure none of us had a single clue to what they meant by that.

"Not helping, Pinkie…"

I looked over to find who had said that last. My eyebrows drew together, and my arms folded across my chest when the one responsible came into view. It was Sunset Shimmer. At this point, I'd be lying if I denied that I started feeling the lingering competitive fire ignite within me.

" _Ho! We're gonna take you down!_ " The students from the other side suddenly began chanting together with a few strays joining in a little later.

" _Ho! We're gonna take you down!_

 _Take you down! (Ho! We're gonna take you down!)_

 _Take you down! (Down, down, down)_ "

Eyes from our side squinted, and it was clear that they weren't going to let them get away with that.

" _(Oh oh!) We're here to take you out_

 _(Aw aw!) We're here to take you out (Aw aw!)_ "

I heard a close voice join in behind me. Turning around, I was almost taken aback when I noticed that Faith had been firing herself up for the Friendship Games along with the other students.

" _Take you out! (We're here to take you out!)_

 _Take you out!_ "

It was just as if each school had been participating in an enormous pep-rally, and they were both competing against each other to see who was able to be the loudest one. It was Canterlot High School's turn to take the stand.

" _We're not about to let you win, so get out of our way_

 _Think you got us beat, but we're here to stay_

 _United strong, yeah, we'll take you down_

 _You're not so tough, now you're in our town_

 _All of the times we lost before_

 _Not about to give up, we're only bringin' it more_

 _We can smell your fear, we can see your sweat_

 _Hope you didn't spend money 'cause you're losin' this bet!_ "

The twelve of the opposing team gathered in unison and began to shout out loud at the top of their lungs as they threw their fists in the air.

" _You've got nothin' on us_

 _Na, na, na-na-na, na_

 _Let's go, Wondercolts!_

 _You've got nothin' on us_

 _Na, na, na-na-na, na_

 _Let's go, Wondercolts!_ "

Next was Crystal Prep's time to retaliate, and based on the looks locked onto their faces, they weren't intimidated at all.

" _Talk a little too much for a school that never wins_

 _Maybe you should just stop 'fore you even begin_

 _We are Crystal Prep High and we have a reputation_

 _Every little moment is about our education_

 _Put your ear to the ground_

 _Listen to that sound_

 _You're a house of cards_

 _And it's about to fall down (fall down)_

 _About to fall down (fall down), hit the ground_ "

Unlike Canterlot High, our team didn't necessarily gather together like one would expect them to. Instead, they stuck to their own as if the idea of teamwork was nonexistent to them.

" _You've got nothin' on us_

 _Na, na, na-na-na, na_

 _Let's go, Shadowbolts!_

 _You've got nothin' on us_

 _Na, na, na-na-na, na_

 _Let's go, Shadowbolts!_ "

It was uncanny. Never before have I witnessed such a coordinated event occur between two rivals. Had they been secretly practicing for something like this?

" _Pressure's on, now we're gonna beat you_

 _Step aside, it's time that we defeat you_

 _Crystal Prep yourself 'cause you're about to go_

 _Down, down, down, down_ "

Just like a turn-based role-playing game, Crystal Prep proceeded to strike after Canterlot High's last turn.

" _Pressure's on, you know we're gonna take you_

 _Just give up before we have to break you_

 _Canter-not-a-lot, you're about to go_

 _Down, down, down, down_ "

At this point, I noticed one specific person separate themselves from their group and face towards us in a standoffish manner. It was Sunset Shimmer, and the sight of her determined and unfazed expression began to make my blood boil. She looked like she had something mischievous planned for any of us during the competition. In fact, based on what I've seen for myself from the video online, I was willing to believe that she was capable of going as far as intentionally cheating.

" _Take it up to the top_

 _'Cause we know we can win_ "

From our side, a girl was rather unwillingly pushed to stand before Sunset Shimmer. It was Twilight Sparkle, seeing as she was the top student from our school. However, she didn't look as brave and ready as Sunset Shimmer did. Instead, she didn't even look like she wanted to be out there away from the group.

" _Maybe you should just stop_

 _'Cause we've seen you give in_ "

I locked my eyes onto Sunset Shimmer. She may have been too busy glaring maliciously at Twilight, but I, for one, cared more about bringing Sunset Shimmer down instead of Canterlot High as a whole.

" _We believe in ourselves_

 _And we've got what it takes_ "

" _And we're not gonna stop!_ " Both teams screamed together until the school's intercom system suddenly broke up the feud between us.

"Will the students participating in the Friendship Games please make their way inside the school?" A voice loudly broadcasted.

It was clear that the interruption was enough to bring the chanting spirits to an end. Each side stared daggers at each other for a moment before they decided they would save their energy to settle things officially. Before I could join them inside, I noticed a bicycle stand near the front doors and secured my bike with a lock.

* * *

"Welcome to the first event, the Academic Decathlon!" Dean Cadance announced when we had gathered inside the entrance of the school. "You'll be scored on chemistry, home-ec, and everything in between. But remember, only the six students from each team with the most points will move on to event number two. Good luck!"

It had been obvious from the very start that Faith and I would be paired up for this competition, so the first thing we did was stick close by each other. Students from each school proceeded to do the same until everyone was ready for the main event to start.

First up was chemistry as Dean Cadance had mentioned. Faith and I didn't hold a strongpoint with science in general. In fact, Faith was absolutely clueless. When Faith had first transferred over to Crystal Prep, she had been doing the worst in science subjects. The only reason I had been able to pick her back up was because I always tended to pay attention strictly to the material as it was being taught. In other words, I only really _remembered_ what I was being taught than _truly_ understanding it. It was no question that Twilight would excel in this category.

In summary, Faith became my absolutely loyal assistant in this case, never once questioning whether I was right or wrong with how I was handling our project. We had been given some sort of instructions, and we needed to find the right mix and match in order to finish the event. Not only did we have to complete our objective, but the amount of time and mistakes it took for us to finish factored into our total score.

At the end, all I could say was that Faith and I couldn't confidently sum up our performance for chemistry, seeing as we pretty much winged it. The two of us agreed that we would ignore whatever we did back there.

Things began to look up for us when we began getting into subjects we were more familiar with. In this case, our next competitive event was home-ec. In other words, we had to cook/bake. I allowed Faith to take the lead on this one since she clearly had more experience.

I was pretty astonished to see Faith taking this event pretty seriously. Usually, whenever I was around while she was baking, she always looked like she was having an especially good time. Thankfully, she wasn't taking this _too_ seriously, but she did seem to act if she was competing for the title of world's best chef.

The other students appeared to have been making cakes for the most part, but Faith decided to take a different route and go for some frosted brownies instead. Once she threw in the liquidized mix into the oven, she carefully set the time and smacked off whatever batter she had on her hands.

"You're really into this, aren't you, Faith?" I asked as we now waited for our dessert to finish.

"I guess I just want to give it all I got." Faith admitted as she crossed her arms and stared towards the sugar we'd be using after the brownies were done.

"Your brownies will be one of the best, if not _the_ best, for this category. You're an awesome baker, after all."

"Thanks, Chase…" She responded with a soft smile at me before she seemed to look past me and immediately turn away towards her oven.

Out of curiosity, I leaned my head over my shoulder to figure out what had caused her to react so jittery. In the next few seconds, I had locked eyes with Sunset Shimmer, and it honestly almost took me a bit to realize it. Before I could react properly, she immediately turned away apprehensively. It was almost as if she was doing something she wasn't supposed to, and she knew it. I reminded myself to keep an eye on her for as long as this competition would last.

Once our joint effort was completed, we presented Faith's delicious and appealing brownies among the rest of the students. There were surprisingly a couple of students from each side that produced a rather sad result. I wondered if I would have been on the same boat with them if it wasn't for Faith.

Concluding the category, I believed every one of us was taken aback when a team of the opposite end provided a literal work of art with their cake. That girl, Pinkie Pie, along with another one of her friends, Fluttershy, I think, cut open a cake to reveal a spitting image of one of history's most famous paintings. Even I would agree that that'd be an instant win right there, but how she managed to recreate a famous work of art, I'll never know.

Despite not winning the event entirely, Faith and I seemed to place among the best aside Suri Polomare's team. Our principal appeared to believe otherwise. She approached us without a word and looked as if she was heavily disappointed in our performance. I couldn't speak for Faith, but I wasn't ready to surrender to her criticizing gaze. The only thing that Grinch cared about was winning, and that didn't factor in how well we performed on our end.

The roles Faith and I took in the previous event were now switched as we had been tasked with building a birdhouse out of wood. As soon as I had glanced over the supplies we were given, I didn't hesitate for a second in giving Faith instructions for a smooth ride.

"Alright, Faith. Here's what we're going to do." I stretched out a piece of the supplied blueprint paper and began drawing out plans for our birdhouse. I didn't want to risk doing anything out of the ordinary, so I decided on a simple two-floor model. "I'll measure and cut the wood, and every piece of wood I finish cutting, you'll paint it."

"Um, what paint should I use?" She asked as she looked over the paints we had available for our use. "What colors?"

"That's up for you to decide." I shot a smirk at her. "You have an eye for these things. Choose whatever you think will look pretty for the birdhouse."

With a small blush, she nodded. "Okay. Be careful. Don't cut yourself…" She warned a little worriedly after noticing the saws at our table.

After carefully using our measuring tape and marking where I needed to cut with a pencil, I cautiously aligned the marks under the saw and brought it down against the wood. From the corner of my eye, I noticed Faith anxiously bite her lip while refusing to take her eyes off my fingers. I sent her an assuring smile before I ran power to the saw and allowed it to rip through the wood.

I made sure to let Faith know what wood would go where, so she would know what paints to use for said wood. It didn't take long to finish putting out the wood needed for the first floor of the birdhouse, and it was just a repetition of steps for the second floor. To tell the truth, I never expected that I would have this kind of experience with woodshop, but I suppose it was all thanks to those times my dad would drag me out to help him with his own projects at home.

Faith was already done with the first floor of the birdhouse by the time I finished chucking out the wood for the second floor. I decided to start nailing the pieces for the first floor together, so we could have the first half ready for whenever we were going to attach the rest. Some people might consider attaching the wood first before painting it, but seeing as we were limited on time, I decided it was most efficient to paint the separate pieces first before bringing them together.

I cleaned up our workspace as Faith finished with the rest of the pieces. Once she was all done, I carefully nailed the necessary parts, and we used the rest of the time we had to make sure it was sturdy and presentable enough.

I was actually surprised to see that the majority of the other students managed to only get a one-floor birdhouse. I wasn't sure if the house itself was hard enough, or if they were just too lazy to put in the extra effort. However, after taking a look at one particular team, I decided to lean more towards the former. Their birdhouse was literally on the verge of breaking apart. When the time came for judging, I felt especially bad when their project fell flat like a house of cards. I couldn't expect for high school students to know about working with wood like I did.

The judges appeared to be heavily surprised when they saw our finished project. It was noticeably clear that we surprisingly won that round, and Faith couldn't help but draw me in for a hug at the end of it. I honestly thought we wouldn't actually come first, especially if it came to a competition with Crystal Prep, but I could only assume that a lot of students, particularly our school, didn't like to get their hands dirty…or full of splinters.

We were finally given somewhat of a break when we gathered inside the gymnasium, but it wasn't for long. We had been guided towards the stage for an apparent spelling bee. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but I could understand why a lot of the students from both sides failed, seeing as they had been given quite horridly long words.

Ironically, I had been given the word 'derailleur', and if it wasn't for my experience with riding bikes, I probably would have only gotten the first half of the word right. Other than that, I believed Twilight was the only other one who got her word right, and I had to admit, the difficulty of the word was like absolutely nothing for her.

After the spelling bee, there seemed to be one last event for our time in the gym. It was an absolutely insane math problem, and only one member from each school would participate. For us, it was a no-brainer to pick Twilight, but at the same time, I worried that she might have felt more than enough pressure in representing Crystal Prep. On the other hand, for Canterlot High, Sunset Shimmer would be taking the stand.

The rest of us sat in front of the stage as if we were about to witness some kind of play or performance. I couldn't even fathom the idea of standing up there in front of the whole school while working on a horrendously difficult math problem that really just translated as a mishmash of numbers for me.

"Do you think Twilight's going to win?" Faith whispered into my ear as the rest of the students, including the judges, quietly observed both students clacking away at the chalk board.

"Of course, she's going to win." I answered with confidence. "If she spends every minute of her life doing research and studying, this should be a walk in a park for her. Besides…" My eyes wandered over to her opponent. Already having an idea of what kind of a person Sunset Shimmer was like, I was sure she didn't stand a chance unless she managed to cheat somehow. But being in front of everyone like this, I assumed that that was nearly impossible. "There's no way that _she_ can last against Twilight." I gestured my head in her direction.

We continued watching until both of the competitors placed down their chalks and time ran out. In this case, Principal Grinch took matters into her own hands and studied each answer they provided for an unnerving moment. Finally, she pointed a cold finger towards Sunset Shimmer's side and voiced her decision to everyone boldly.

"Incorrect!"

There was a random flash and a click coming from Canterlot High's side, and I could only assume someone, for some reason, took a photo of Sunset Shimmer's humiliated and defeated face. I suppose that was some kind of karma.

"That means the winner of the Friendship Games' first event is Twilight Sparkle and Crystal Prep!" Their vice principal announced energetically.

It appeared Twilight had been expecting a loud appreciation for all of the hard endeavors she had to endure through so far, but she only seemed to receive forced applause and a bunch of groaning. What nerve, I swear.

I began to clap as loudly as I could while Faith joined shortly after me. Fortunately, it seemed Twilight noticed, but as for everyone else, they appeared to just give us disgruntled and annoyed looks. Afterwards, as Dean Cadance made her way to the stage, she pointed out certain students, including us, and gestured us to come up with her. "After a careful tally of the points, we'd like to present the students moving on to the Friendship Games' second event."

"Impressive." Sunny Flare, who turned out to be standing on the other side of me when we arrived on top of the stage, mentioned as she watched me. "Hey. Maybe you and I can be together for the next event."

"In your dreams…" I heard Faith mutter.

"Sorry, Sunny Flare." I apologized. "I'm sticking with Faith all the way."

Sunny Flare sighed as she turned towards the crowd. "It was worth asking."

Besides her, I found Sugar Sweet and Lemon Zest to be the last of the students that had also joined us. I almost wanted to chuckle in accomplishment when I realized that Sugarcoat hadn't made it up, but I figured that she might have not cared about it in the first place.

Once we were off the stage, I spotted Twilight and approached her to congratulate her personally. "Hey, Twilight. Great job on working out that insane problem. I couldn't even solve something like that in my dreams."

Seeing as the rest of the students from Crystal Prep didn't bother complimenting her efforts at all, she seemed fairly surprised when I tried to make up for their absence. "Thanks, Chase." She mentioned with a sweet smile. "I, uh…" There was a sudden soft beeping coming from what appeared to be the mechanism she wore around her neck. She picked it up to analyze the front, and her body began twisting towards a certain direction. "Um, sorry, I need to check this out really quick."

Without another word, she walked off and followed whatever scent she apparently picked up. Figures.

"Come on." I heard as I felt my wrist being grabbed. "Let's get some lunch."

"Yeah, okay." I agreed with Faith and followed her out of the gymnasium.

* * *

It was nice to actually have a real break afterwards. To put it simply, it was like we had our very own lunch period as if we were following a school schedule. Crystal Prep was allowed to use this school's cafeteria, but as expected, each school kept to their own side. Some students looked like they couldn't even stand the sight of the opposite school, so they didn't stay. Nevertheless, just like back at Crystal Prep, Faith and I sat at a table on our own.

"You know…I honestly wasn't expecting that we'd make it to the top six." Faith mentioned as she looked over the food we had been given.

"Me either, I guess." I responded as I picked up my bag and searched through it. "I sort of just want this week to be over. What about you? How have you been doing?"

"I'm fine." She answered as she glanced downwards at her swinging legs. "I guess you were right after all. I was overreacting before. No one really seems to be _noticing_ me. I guess they really did forget about me, or maybe everything from freshman year just blew over. I wonder if there was even bigger drama after I left."

"Yeah, probably." I assumed as I picked out my camera equipment. "I doubt Sunset Shimmer only had beef with you. She probably caused all sorts of drama. I can't even comprehend how she has friends."

"You know cliques." Faith poked a piece of her lunch with her fork. "It doesn't matter if you're bad. That just means you'll get together with bad people."

I thought about the girls Sunset Shimmer had been associating herself with. "I wonder if they're her victims…or if they're just weird."

As much as I wanted to get more into it, I began to shake those thoughts off. They were none of my business. We were only going to be here for the rest of these Friendship Games, and that would be it. No point in getting involved.

"What's that?" Faith noticed the equipment I had begun setting up. "A camera?"

"Yeah." I answered. "I brought this along thinking I could record some stuff during the competition. Although, we haven't really done anything _that_ interesting so far. I'm not sure if it was worth bringing this along in the first place."

"Maybe the next event has something to do with sports. It'd be kind of boring if we just stick to classrooms." She wondered.

"Probably." I responded as I finished putting the equipment together and strapped it to my chest for a test run. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Faith noticed me power on the camera and hit the record button, so she stopped eating her food to form a V with her index and middle finger while poking her tongue out at the camera.

"You know it's recording, right? Not taking pictures?" I pointed out.

"Duh. I'm not that dumb, Chase." Faith smirked. "I'm just giving you something worthwhile to look back on."

"Oh, gee. Thanks." I lightly chuckled and observed the HUD to find that the battery was still pretty full. "This can probably stay on for the rest of the day. If there aren't any interesting events left for the Friendship Games, at least we can make a good vlog out of it, right?"

"Exactly." She leaned forward slightly as she agreed. "I think we should try to make as many good memories as we can." After, she sat back with a fist to her pursed lips. "…but, if you get any embarrassing shots of me…um…cut them out, please?"

"Uh, sure." I acknowledged, but I couldn't really think of what kind of embarrassing shots she was talking about.

Faith and I remained lingering inside the cafeteria after finishing our lunch, seeing as we had been expecting to be called on the intercom. Instead, Principal Grinch surprised us when she approached our table with her usual strict and professional posture. "Faith Meadows. Star Chaser. Come with me."

The two of us got up and began following her out of the cafeteria and in the school hallways. Around our principal, we usually had to keep our mouths shut as if masking tape had been applied on them, so it was pretty much heavily silent until she looked over her shoulder at me.

"What is _that_?" She gestured towards my chest.

I had almost completely forgotten that I had still been wearing the camera.

"Oh this?" I responded as politely as I could. "It's a video camera. I was hoping I could get some footage of the Friendship Games, ma'am. After all, seeing as Crystal Prep has a record of winning every one of them, it wouldn't hurt to have something to look back on, right?"

She turned her head back in the direction she was walking in and didn't respond immediately. Faith and I turned towards each other, and I was afraid she might have me remove it right then and there. That's if she didn't decide to confiscate it herself for some reason.

"I suppose it's not a bad idea." Principal Grinch appeared to agree with me for once, shocking us with a sharp surprise. I had to keep myself from asking for confirmation over her decision. "As you should already know, Crystal Prep is known for its excellence when it comes to student performance. I don't know what Canterlot High has done to gain a noticeable increase on their reputation, but if you happen to catch any sign of cheating or exploitation on that camera of yours, be sure to let me know."

Hold on. Cheating? Is she letting me keep the camera in case the other school cheats? Whatever, I'll take it.

"Um, of course, Principal Cinch." I accepted.

At the end of the hallway we had been on, we were led to these gray double doors. Once they were open, we were attacked with a slightly blinding light. Once my eyes adjusted, my jaw almost automatically hung open.

It wasn't necessarily the paved track and obstacle course at the center, but around those things were huge mountains of dirt and ramps that came together as some kind of track of its own. If I wasn't mistaken, it looked like a freaking motocross track.

"Motocross?! Really?!" I couldn't keep myself from exclaiming out loud.

"That is what I brought you two out here for." Grinch responded and turned towards a group of girls standing by the outside bleachers. "I will be assigning your roles for this next, and I expect to be last, event of the Friendship Games."

The girls that had been seemingly waiting turned to see us approaching them with Principal Grinch. It was the other four that had made it forward out of the original twelve: Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, and Twilight…

"Now that you're all here, this is how Crystal Prep is going to compete for this event. You will race in pairs." She turned particularly towards Faith and me. "Faith Meadows and Star Chaser will handle the motocross."

"Wait, what?!" Faith unintentionally blurted out from disbelief.

"You two are always riding a bike to school, are you not?" Grinch attempted to provide a reason for her choice. Although, it wasn't exactly a good one, seeing as riding a bike and dirt bike was almost completely different. I suppose _someone_ had to do it in this case… "I expect that you two won't have a problem with this part of the race."

" _I_ ride us to school on a bike." I corrected. "Faith doesn't know how to drive a dirt bike. Can she just ride with me?"

At this moment, Grinch lifted up her spectacles with her index finger and thumb and massaged the area between her eyes in silent frustration. "Aside from the archery portion, only one contestant must pass the finish line in order for us to advance and win. If you are confident in your ability to do just that, I will allow the both of you to ride one bike. However, you must realize that this puts us at a disadvantage as we will have one less contestant on the motocross. If this is the case, I _expect_ you to win." She made sure to emphasize.

"Hey, Principal Cinch." Sunny Flare's hand suddenly shot up. "I'll be with Chase on the motocross." She offered with a mischievous smirk.

"N-no!" Faith immediately refused.

"You and Lemon Zest have already requested the short track. I assumed that you two have confidence in this area, so I will not jeopardize our win by making an unnecessary mismatch." Principal Grinch was pretty clear in keeping total control of who did what. "If Chase believes that he can make up for two in the motocross, then I trust that he will do so." She glanced over to me from the corner of her eyes, and that was all I really needed to know that she wasn't expecting any kind of failure from my part. "This leaves Sour Sweet and Twilight. Since archery is a standard requirement at our school, I'll leave you two to do it."

"Well, that's just marvelous!" Sour Sweet feigned a sweet tone before she muttered sourly under her breath afterwards. " _If you wanna lose before we even start!_ "

"Given that Twilight won the last event single-handedly, I have every confidence that she will be able to pull her weight here." Grinch leaned forward to intimidatingly catch Twilight's eyes. "Won't you?"

Twilight returned a nod, but I felt a strong sense of uncertainty behind it.

"Hold on." Sunny Flare spoke up once more, noticing Sour Sweet's reaction. "Why don't you just put Faith with Twilight? I can be with Chase on the motocross and Sour Sweet can be with Lemon Zest for the short track."

"That's a swell idea!" Sour Sweet repeated her manner of speaking, but then closed in on Sunny Flare for her next sour statement. "But if you switch like that, we're _sure_ to lose before we even start. _I_ can hit the bullseye the first chance I get, but don't screw up everything for us because of your stupid crush on _him!_ "

"I agree with Sour Sweet!" Faith immediately rose her hand and mentioned loudly. "I suck at archery, and she says that she'll hit the bullseye right off the bat. If you put me on the bike with Chase, I won't get in anyone's way of winning! Plus, get this!" She excitedly began pushing her point. "If I ride on the back of the bike with Chase, it won't necessarily put us at a disadvantage. In fact, while he's driving the bike, I can keep a lookout for him, you know? That's _super_ useful if you ask me! A lot more useful than if you just put me on a bike I don't even know how to drive!"

Sunny Flare didn't appear to be too fond or amused with Faith's reasoning, no matter how much she actually made sense with it. Sour Sweet didn't particularly care for what she had to say; she just wanted to stick to the plan and get things over with.

"We are sticking to the plan." Principal Grinch declared after hearing everyone out. "If Faith Meadows cannot participate efficiently on a separate vehicle in the motocross, then we have no choice. I find it much more reasonable to put her on with Star Chaser. It's as she said; she can watch over Star Chaser as he focuses on winning the race. Understand?"

There was somewhat of a collection of dissatisfied murmurs before Lemon Zest cried out loud in excitement. "Let's get this show on the road!"

Before the race could actually start, Faith and I had to separate momentarily in order to get changed in our given uniforms for the part of the event we would be partaking in. In our case, we had been given motocross outfits, and their design was sure to stick with Crystal Prep's colors.

Faith and I reconvened with each other after changing and made our way to the top of the ramp where we'd start in motocross. We only noticed three dirt bikes, one clearly being for Crystal Prep. I assumed that Grinch already made notice of our change in roles, so it didn't seem like it was going to be a problem at all.

"Hey, Chase…" Faith called me as I closely analyzed the bike in front of me. "I know you can obviously ride a bicycle, but have you ever driven…" She poked the vehicle next to me. "Well…this before?"

"I'm not going to lie…" I started saying as I stood up from kneeling down. "I think I've only driven something like this once or twice before in my life. I'm no expert, but it _seemed_ simple enough. I can't guarantee a win though." I took extra notice at the handle bars. There was only one folding bar, and that was on top of the throttle. "Thankfully, it looks like this is automatic, otherwise, there would be another bar over here." I pointed at the left handlebar. "With manual, a vehicle would have a clutch, and you would need to have that in order to shift gears. Unless you were super familiar with shifting gears manually, it's a pain in the butt to drive like that. I guess they're not _totally_ expecting the impossible from students. I ride a bicycle for frick's sake."

After my short little explanation/rant, Faith stared at me with a puzzled look. "Um…"

I decided to lay it out as clearly as I could for her. "With manual, I would have to pretty much change how fast I go on my own. Since this is automatic, it does it all for me. There's perks and cons to each, but for the sake of this event, it's better to have automatic."

"Well…you're the one who's driving." Faith mentioned with a bright grin. "I'm counting on you to bring us straight to victory!"

"Yeah, like I said, no guarantee I'll win this for us…" I reminded and adverted my gaze to the side in thought.

I could feel Faith's gaze linger on me until I was suddenly slightly pushed with a light amount of force. I had to snap out of my thoughts to realize that Faith had been embracing me, and it wasn't just for a few seconds. She was hanging on longer than usual.

"Faith?" I questioned.

"I know Principal Cinch wants us to win…" I heard Faith's voice right by my ear. "But I don't care what happens as long as I'm with you. I _know_ that you'll do your best, and even if we don't win, I'll cheer for you no matter what. After all, I only want what's best for you…"

I couldn't help but smile softly. "What are you? My mom?" I joked.

"I'm the best thing you've got, dummy." She seemed to jest as well as she tightened her grip on me a little more.

"You got it." I promised. "I'll do my best. Not just for me, but for both of us."

She slowly pulled away and gazed at me for a while longer with a beaming smile. A radiant glow seemed to form inside her cheeks until we suddenly heard another voice besides us.

"Hey, you two are missing a bike!"

With the help of her hair, I believed the person that spoke to us was one of Sunset Shimmer's friends: Rainbow Dash. Speaking of the devil, Sunset Shimmer herself stood behind her.

"We're going to be racing on one." I answered.

"I kind of…can't really drive…" Faith rubbed the back of her head embarrassingly.

"Oh, that's cool, I guess." Rainbow Dash began messing with the functions of her own bike. "You'll just be short of a player."

"Faith can still be pretty helpful." I assured with my arms crossed. "She'll be my second set of eyes, so to speak. Having moral support right behind me is pretty cool too."

"If you say so." Rainbow Dash smirked at me. "Just don't complain if we happen to cross the finish line first."

"Got it." I acknowledged.

I glanced over to Sunset Shimmer, and it seemed she subtly had her eyes on Faith for a while now. I, of course, couldn't help but put a defensive look on my face.

"Hey, uh, Faith, right?" Sunset Shimmer asked Faith.

It wasn't unreasonable when Faith began rubbing her arm a little uncomfortably. "…yeah?"

"Listen. There's something I need to tell you, but I don't know how to put it. You see…"

"Save it for after the race." Rainbow Dash intervened. "You guys will have all the time to talk then, but right now, we have to concentrate!"

"Right… Okay."

Pulling my leg over the seat and adjusting my strapped video camera, I called over Faith. "Come on. See if it's comfortable enough for you."

I felt her hands press against me as she climbed on. She shuffled a little bit on her seat until her hands ran across my waist and secured themselves. She peeked over my shoulders a bit until she gave her answer. "Yeah, I'm good."

It was only a matter of time before the bleachers were filled with students from both schools. The scoreboard at the top lit up with each of our points at zero. On the left side was Canterlot High School, and on the right, was Crystal Prep. With the kind of view we had up on top of the ramp, we were able to notice that the majority of students either had flags, snacks, or both.

A judging station had been set up high enough to where the same four judges could get a good look of the play area. As the spectators eagerly waited for the event to begin, I noticed our principal enter the judging station and take her seat between Principal Celestia and Dean Cadance. It was at this point where Dean Cadence stood up and spoke into the microphone.

"Welcome, everyone to the Friendship Games Tricross Relay!" She paused to receive booming applause from the bleachers. "In this event, our qualifying competitors will face off in archery, speed skating, and finally, motocross." Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer glanced at us for a few seconds. "So if the competitors are ready..."

"Here we go…" I softly directed towards Faith.

A loud blast of an airhorn.

"Each competitor must hit a bullseye before their teammates can start the next leg of the relay."

I immediately turned to the center of the area and found Sour Sweet already making a run for it. I usually always considered Sour Sweet as one of those 'All bark. No bite' kind of girls, but I had to admit that seeing her pass through all the obstacles that had been set up began to prove me wrong. It was almost like she was intentionally trying to impress someone that had been currently watching. She reached the end where her bow had been placed several seconds before her opponent and hardly spent any time aiming. Firing three arrows at once, she made true to her promise and hit the bullseye with one of them.

"Wow… I didn't think she had it in her." Faith commented beside me.

I watched Twilight go in second. Her opponent was still in the process of firing her bow, and it appeared she was having trouble shooting an arrow to begin with. I didn't know how good Twilight was with archery, but she definitely had a lot of time to make do with.

It hurt to see how Twilight clumsily passed through each obstacle in comparison to Sour Sweet, and it didn't help that Sour Sweet was visibly getting more annoyed the longer she took. For a second, I decided to see how their opponent had been doing. For some reason, she closed her eyes and held her breath before taking another shot. With a sudden stroke of luck, she hit the bullseye without even aiming. How does that work? She gave the go ahead to her partner, which angered Sour Sweet even more.

By the time Twilight finally and comfortably made it onto the last platform, the opposition was already right on her tail. In fact, she had already taken a shot by the time Twilight had picked up her bow and started aiming, all while Sour Sweet judgmentally observed her performance. Twilight missed her first shot, just like her opponent, and I could see Sour Sweet shake in frustration. A few tense seconds later, the opposition managed to strike the bullseye within the second shot. This gave the greenlight to their team at the short track, and they didn't hesitate to start.

"And Canterlot is off to an early lead!"

My heart began racing, and it wasn't entirely because we were off at a bad start. It was more due to the fact that I couldn't even fathom how Twilight was feeling with all this new pressure constantly building up on her. It was clear when Twilight was constantly missing every shot she took, some not even being close to the target.

"Well, _that's_ just fantastic!" Sour Sweet sarcastically yelled out loud enough for us to hear.

"And you think _that's_ going to help?!" I felt the need to curse under my breath.

" _Whee!_ " Pinkie Pie, one of the competitors on the short track, screamed out in joy as they passed their second lap.

"If CPA can't hit another bullseye soon, they'll be out of this race." Dean Cadence continued to provide commentary over the stressful situation.

I wanted to help Twilight, but I obviously couldn't just run down there in the middle of the race. Come on Sour Sweet… If you want to win so badly, then help her!

"You're really bad at this!" A voice shouted from the bleachers, and it sounded like none other than Sugarcoat.

To my surprise, one of their opponents unexpectedly crossed sides and approached Twilight. Sour Sweet's reaction was more than unwelcoming. However, after their opponents seemed to provide guidance, Twilight appeared to take a breath and steady herself. She stretched out the string of bow her with an arrow and held it for several seconds before taking one last shot at her target.

I was hit with a sudden wave of relief when I observed that arrow hit the bullseye, and it felt like I could breathe properly again.

"Nice one, Applejack." I heard from another bike.

"As much as I appreciate what she did…" I mentioned as I turned to our opponents. "She didn't have to do that. You guys could have easily won, so why?"

"It's Applejack, that's why." Rainbow Dash answered simply. "Besides, it's no fun if someone on your team is having trouble like that. Someone honest like her won't stand for that."

"Hm…" I turned back to the playing field. These students weren't like the ones here at Crystal Prep. At the very least, most of them seemed to care for others, and what I just witnessed surely proved it.

I moved towards the short track, and our team was surely making up for the hiccup. Canterlot High had been laps ahead by the time Crystal Prep started, but Sunny Flare and Lemon Zest were on fire right now.

"Canterlot only has two laps to go! But it looks like Crystal Prep is making up for lost time!"

"Put on your helmet, Faith." I advised, seeing as we'd be starting really soon. "You better hold on tight as soon as our number hits seven. I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'll try not to." She responded with a soft smirk before placing on her protective gear.

After fixing mine, I took a look at the scoreboard to notice that it was only a matter of seconds before we were to roll out.

"GLHF!" Rainbow Dash shouted out towards us.

"Huh?" I returned in confusion.

"Good luck, have fun." Faith explained over my shoulder.

"What a finish!" Dean Cadence exclaimed when both scores hit eight.

I felt an immediate explosion of butterflies explode in my stomach as I stared at our light until it turned green. Ready or not, here we go!

I hit the throttle, and I had to admit that I wasn't ready for the kick. We got a few seconds of air before bouncing on the dirt path and racing towards the top of the mound that would take us to the next part.

"You've got this, Chase!" I managed to hear by my ear, despite the resistance of the wind. "Just imagine it's the road you always take to school!" She shared as she squeezed her arms around me like never before.

"Kind of hard when you're bumping all over the place at an insane speed!" I shouted back.

"We've got a ramp incoming!" Faith pointed out. "There's an open space on the way, so make sure you're fast enough to make the jump!"

I revved up the bike a little more and made sure I didn't fail at the jump. I hated the feeling I got every time we were on nothing but air, but all I could do was keep pushing through. It almost reminded me of going to the dentist. Knowing the dentist was practically drilling into your teeth was a major pain, but you just had to lie there and take it.

I believed I slowly began to become accustomed to racing on the track, but it definitely wasn't enough, and wouldn't be enough, to ride comfortably at ease. At the moment, I only focused on getting closer to the finish line. As hard as I tried to keep up, it seemed like the other two were able to stay in front of me.

"Chase, see if you can get a little closer to this side!" She pointed towards the inner barrier of the track. "There's a bunch of bumps on their side, so you might be able to move on ahead here!"

Taking her advice, I began to steer a little to the left as slowly as I could, hoping that I wouldn't jerk our direction, cause us to crash, and ultimately lose us the event while possibly getting insanely hurt in the process. As I began avoiding those bumps Faith had been talking about, I noticed I was considerably getting closer and eventually passing them.

"There's another ramp there!" Faith reminded. "After that ramp, there's going to be a row of tires you need to get over. After that is the finish line! You got this, Chase! Keep going!"

You got it, Faith.

As much as I wanted to go full speed ahead and hope that we jump far enough to skip the tires, the risk of causing harm to each of us shook that idea off. I slowed down just a tad bit for us to pass the ramp with ease, and I was soon able to see those tires Faith had mentioned.

"They're behind us, but they're not too far back!" My companion noted.

"Hang on!" I reminded as I grew closer to the tire row. With the helping mound of dirt beforehand, I pulled back the handles of the dirt bike and prepared one last jump.

"The finish line! We're so close!" Faith observed as we bounced back on the dirt. However, before I could pull back the throttle with everything I had, I suddenly heard a scream from behind me. " _Aaah!_ "

Taking a quick glance over my shoulder, I immediately panicked when Faith was nowhere in sight.

"Faith!" I called out as I drifted into a quick stop without thinking.

I turned behind me and immediately spotted her body face down on the dirt. I was somewhat relieved when I noticed her arms moving, but it was clear that she was struggling to get up. They immensely shook as she pushed herself up. In the next second, I was completely shocked when she pulled her head up, removed her helmet, took in a gasping breath, and made eye contact with me.

Thankfully, due to her helmet, her face seemed to be untouched. However, I could tell she was struggling with a great deal of pain. Her eyes had been holding back tears, and she was biting her lips considerably. I especially took note on how she held her right arm with her left hand.

"…go! You can…still win this!"

I took a look in the other direction and noticed that there was a clear shot towards the finish line. In fact, I found our other two opponents in a pickle of their own. It appeared Sunset Shimmer had somehow fallen from her bike as well, and Rainbow Dash stopped to come to her aid.

Faith was right. I could shoot straight for the finish line and end this competition once and for all.

But if I did that…

I turned back towards Faith who had remained on the ground struggling with whatever kind of pain she had been currently feeling on her own.

"Both Canterlot High and Crystal Prep have stopped right before the finish line!" I heard Dean Cadance announce from her station. "Only Crystal Prep still has a competitor on their bike! Is he going to go for the finish line?!"

"Hurry!" I heard Faith shout as she closed her eyes. At this point, she could no longer hold back her tears. They were leaking down her cheeks from her eyes.

My heart was racing even faster than our bikes had been. Before me, I had two solid choices, and in no doubt, did I had a limited amount of time to make a decision.

I could easily take Faith's advice and finish this race. It's definitely what Principal Grinch is screaming internally for me to do. It's what Faith wants. It's what everyone watching from our school wants. My head constantly shrieked to me that it was the most logical choice. So, why couldn't I move on? My head wanted to pull the throttle and make it to the finishing line, but my heart absolutely denied this action.

What kind of friend would I be if I just left Faith alone like that?! Ever since we officially met each other, she's been there for me, offering any kind of comfort she could every time I needed it. Seeing her there in pain…no matter how much she wanted me to, I couldn't leave her. Not like that.

Your name really suits you, you know?

 _So does yours._ You told me. _After all, you always seem to chase the stars._

So, Faith…what star am I going to chase now?

The win?

Or you?

 _Unless you don't think I'm a star…_

I felt my teeth grit against each other as my fists tightened on the handlebars of our dirt bike.

" **Faith!** " I shouted and ripped the helmet off my head.

I threw it against the dirt as I tore myself from the bike and began racing towards her. She opened her eyes to notice me heading her way. At that point, her eyes widened, almost if she had been internally begging me to get back on my bike and finish the race.

When I reached her, I heard a rev of an engine, and it definitely wasn't mine. I knew what was happening behind me, but I didn't bother to look back. My eyes were on Faith.

"C-Chase?! What are you doing?! Y-y-you're going to lose!" She stated as I placed my right arm behind her back and my left arm behind her thighs. I proceeded to pick her up and carry her off the field as fast as I could.

"Canterlot wins!" Dean Cadance announced.

"C-Chase… We…"

"Shut up!" I told her as I looked directly at her eyes. "I don't give a crap about that! I care about you!"

She stared back at me in silence after I told her that, and I resumed paying attention with where I was running off to.

"Attention, students, please proceed to the gym."

As all of the students began escaping through the doors back into the school, I decided to catch my breath and tend to Faith for a while.

"Faith." I managed to calmly but concerningly say. "Are you hurt bad? Where?"

"My arm…" Faith slipped out painfully as she shut her eyes with every moan. "I don't know…if I hurt myself anywhere else."

"What happened?" I almost demanded to know. "How did you fall off like that?"

"Ugh." She attempted to respond. "I felt…something grab me…and pull me off."

"Faith! Chase! Are you okay?!" I heard a frantic voice cry out. I turned to my side to find Twilight jogging towards us.

"We need to get Faith checked out!" I responded.

"Don't worry!" We heard another voice approach us. I noticed Rainbow Dash stopping in front of us and sparing a look at Faith. "I can you take you guys to the nurse!"

"But…" Twilight tried to say something before Rainbow Dash cut her off.

"I don't care if you guys are on the other team! We look after each other no matter what!"

In a sudden and unexpected surprise, a glow radiated around Rainbow Dash's entire body. Before I knew it, she had grown long ears and wings. I had been caught staring at this evolution in disbelief, and it wasn't until she began groaning from pain when I was able to snap out of it.

"Oh, no! Oh, no no no! Not again!" Twilight cried out, causing me to turn towards her. The device she had been wearing suddenly opened up, and it appeared that it had been sucking out some kind of energy from Rainbow Dash. "I'm sorry! It just started absorbing energy on its own! But I'm not sure how!"

"What do you mean you don't know how?!" Sunset Shimmer appeared before her as Twilight struggled to close her device.

A shard of what looked like electricity escaped from this glowing ball inside the device and struck the space above us. Something I could only describe as a portal opened up, and I was able to see some kind of completely new area through it.

"It also causes these corresponding rifts to appear! I don't know how that works either." Twilight explained.

"Is there anything you _do_ know?! Like how to get our magic back?! Or how to fix the portal to Equestria?!" Sunset Shimmer demanded.

"Equestria?" Twilight questioned, neither of us clearly having a clue to what that was.

"You're supposed to be so smart, but did you ever think that you shouldn't be messing around with things you don't understand?!" Sunset Shimmer pointed a sharp finger at Twilight before managing to finally close her device completely.

"But I _want to_ understand!" Twilight argued.

"But you don't! And worst of all, you put the lives of my friends in danger!"

As Sunset Shimmer continued to instill the blame on Twilight for everything that had happened, I suddenly had flashbacks to the video I watched on Faith's laptop. She was trying to point out Twilight as the bad person here, but I knew Twilight would never do anything to intentionally hurt anyone. At that moment, I started formulating a theory with what happened to Faith that I began to instantly believe without any evidence whatsoever.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." Twilight apologized with a breaking voice before she eventually ran off sobbing.

"Twilight, wait!" I heard as her dog, Spike, ran after her.

I wanted to go after Twilight, but at the time, my heart had been taken over with rage.

"You think you're the one to talk?!" I shouted out loud, catching the attention of everyone in the vicinity, but most importantly, I caused Sunset Shimmer to look at me. "You see this girl here?" I presented my companion who laid in my arms. "You know her, don't you?!" I offered a few seconds for a response from her, but I didn't bother waiting after those few seconds. "You do, and you just tried to pull the same trick like you did freshman year!"

"Chase…" I heard a quivering voice below me, but I had no intention of stopping.

"She thought you were her friend, but you ended up stabbing her in back at the Freshman Fair! She had to switch schools because of you! And you think you have the right to blame other people for your friends being hurt just right now?! You're a freaking liar! And that's not the worst part! I know what you did back in the motocross race! I didn't understand it at first, but now I get why you fell off your bike as soon as Faith did! You grabbed her leg and pulled her off, so you two could move on ahead and win, but you didn't count on losing control of your own bike, did you!? You did all that, and you have the nerve to blame Twilight for hurting your friends?!"

"Wait a minute!" Sunset Shimmer tried to defend herself. "I—"

"You're so freaking heartless!" I continued. "Someone like you doesn't deserve to have any kinds of friends." I growled before I finally decided to stomp on ahead, aggressively brushing my shoulder against Sunset Shimmer's.

Inside the school, I only continued to storm through the hallways in search of a nurse. Thankfully, I managed to come across Dean Cadance, and she quickly rushed over to us when she spotted us.

"How's Faith?! Is she alright?"

I didn't know how to answer that. Faith wasn't exactly 'fine', but I wasn't sure if I could say that she was in any life-threatening danger.

"Where's the nurse?" I asked.

"This way." Dean Cadance placed a hand behind my back and led us through the halls until we came to a certain room.

Observing the décor of the room, it was pretty obvious that we had reached the right place.

* * *

Dean Cadance and I had to step out of the room for a bit, seeing as the nurse had to look over any damage Faith may have had without her motocross uniform. In the meanwhile, we were asked if we could get her school uniform. I had accepted the task without thinking about it until I was outside.

"I have no idea how I'm going to get her clothes back…" I mentioned.

"What's wrong?" Dean Cadance asked.

"We had to go change before the race." I explained. "Her clothes are probably still in the locker room. Girl's locker room…" I felt the need to repeat and specify.

However, Dean Cadance placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'll go get them."

"You know what her bag looks like, right?" I asked. "Just look for the locker with her bag inside."

"I got it." Dean Cadance acknowledged before walking off.

When I was left alone, I continued anxiously waiting and tapping my foot. Throughout the entire time, I not only thought about Faith's condition, but thoughts of the Friendship Games began to plague my mind. I began wondering if the whole school hated me now. I don't regret my decision. It's just a pain if that's what I'm going to have to deal with starting now.

I was lightly caught off guard when Dean Cadance returned and revealed Faith's bag in front of me. "I couldn't find anything else besides her bag, so I'm assuming her clothes are in there. I didn't want to look inside to make sure, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind you doing it, would she?" I shook my head. "I'd really love to stay, but I need to get going. Principal Cinch is _really_ upset right now, and I have to go help get the tiebreaker ready. Let me know how Faith is as soon as possible, okay?"

I nodded before she looked back and sent a short wave. Afterwards, she left.

I turned my eyes towards the bag and opened it to reveal the contents within. The first thing I saw were her clothes. They were all stuffed and crumpled up inside, and this caused me to chuckle lightly in turn. "Just like you, Faith…"

I knocked on the door to gain the nurse's attention, and shortly after, the door opened.

"I've got her clothes here." I held out the bag. "How's she doing?" I asked as the nurse took the bag into her hands.

"There's nothing to worry about." She assured. "She suffered a few bruises, and she cut up her arm a bit. All I needed to do was clean out her cuts and bandage them. She's just resting at the moment."

"Can I see her?" I asked.

For some reason, this caused the nurse to chuckle a bit. "Let me just give these to her first."

I realized what I unintentionally might have implied and responded with a slight heat in my cheeks. "Oh, right…"

It didn't take as long as before for the nurse to come back. It was only a minute or two before the door opened.

"She said you can come in."

"Thank you." I expressed as I walked in. My eyes were immediately drawn over to a side of the room that had been covered with a curtain. I assumed that that was where Faith was.

"Can you excuse me for just a moment?" The nurse mentioned to me. "I'll be _right_ back. I just need to let your school officials know how your friend is doing."

"Yeah, sure." I responded with a nod.

The nurse smiled back before her shoes clacked on the floor and slightly echoed after she left the room. Afterwards, I was able to hear what sounded like ruffling and movement of fabric from the area the curtains had been separating me from. I approached the area and began to call out her name.

"Faith?"

At that moment, I had been too eager to see Faith for myself. I didn't bother to think before acting yet again, and I found myself opening the curtain prematurely. On the other side, Faith had been slipping on her socks, and let's just say that her socks were the first thing she had begun putting on from the clothes in her bag.

"C-Chase?!" She looked back from over her shoulder and stared at me in bewilderment.

When I actually realized what I had been looking at, I immediately backed away from the curtain and pulled it over to the way it was. "Sorry." I apologized as I covered my mouth with my hands and felt heat flashing and surging through my body.

I was surprised to hear a rather calm response come from the other side of the curtain.

"It's okay. It's not like that's _all_ you've seen…right?" She stated half-jokingly.

It was weird that I was the one who was getting all flustered this time. Whenever I brought up those times she had been referring to as a joke to her, she was quick to start blushing like crazy. Now, it was me.

"Mm…" I sounded out, tempted to start unnecessarily fanning myself.

For the next few minutes, I had no choice but to stand with my back facing the curtain as I waited for her to finish.

"I'm done now." I heard and cautiously turned around. I slowly placed my hand on the curtain and began moving it aside. When I was able to get a look inside, Faith had been closing her bag, and she had everything but her blazer on. I observed her quietly for a short while before she lifted her eyes up and looked at me. For some reason, I had a hard time spitting out words, and my heart was kind of pounding. Was this still from just a few minutes ago? "Aren't you going to ask how I'm doing?" She joked.

"Y-yeah…" I rubbed the back of my head. "How are you? Everything okay?"

She began walking towards me, causing me to jump slightly. "Mm-hm." She nodded. "Thanks, Chase…" I glanced over to her arm and found a part of her bandage sticking out from underneath her sleeve. "You didn't have to go do what you did…but you did anyway. I almost don't even get it." I quickly turned my eyes back to her. She had been facing towards the floor. "You could have easily won the Friendship Games. Heck, we might have been going home right about now. But, you went back for me instead. Why?" She lifted her head up and linked her eyes directly with mine.

I thought over my answer and chuckled a bit when I came up with the easiest way to describe it. "Think about it. If the roles were switched, you would have done the same thing, wouldn't you? Sure, it would have been awesome to win and get these stupid games over with, but knowing you were in pain and trouble? There's no way I could have left you there like that while I chased after the finish line. Was it a stupid thing to do? I don't know. Maybe. But I don't have any regrets. I really care about you after all. You're so much more important to me than a stupid race."

Her eyes appeared to glimmer under the ceiling lights inside the room. She continued to gaze at me before she began to both chuckle and tear up. "You're right. I would have gone straight for you. I just don't think I would have been able to pick you up though… Hehe." She wiped any tears lingering at the corners of her eyes.

There was something different about her that tried pulling me in. It almost felt as if there was a magnet inside her, and it was slowly bringing me closer to her. At the same time, the two of us didn't say a word. Instead, each of us unintentionally began having a staring contest, but blinking didn't end the game whatsoever. We stood there and waited for any one of us to make a move.

"I'm back."

We were suddenly snapped back to reality, and we quickly turned to find the nurse walking in as she closed the door behind her. She spotted Faith by my side and began asking about her condition.

"How are you feeling? Good?"

Faith nodded. "Yeah. I'm feeling a lot better now. Thank you."

"That's good." The nurse returned a proud smile. "Your officials wanted to know if you'd still be able to perform in the Friendship Games."

Faith turned to me and presented the question mark she had on her face.

"Tiebreaker." I explained. "Since we lost the race, we're at a tie."

"Oh, right…" Faith remembered and turned back to the nurse. "I feel fine. I can keep going."

"Go on ahead." The nurse allowed. "I believe you'll find them at the front of the school. If you have any concerns, feel free to come back."

"Thank you!" Faith happily expressed before she gathered her things and began leaving the room.

I made sure to thank the nurse as well before we left.

* * *

After I stopped by the locker rooms to change out of my own motocross outfit and recover my items, I felt much more at ease walking in the hallway with Faith knowing that she was alright.

"I was so worried…" I couldn't help but mention. "No, I was like… _terrified_. I thought, I don't know, maybe you broke something."

"Oh, come on, Chase." Faith reassured her health by grinning brightly. "It wasn't _that_ bad."

"You looked like you were in so much pain! How was I supposed to know?!"

"I was at the time…but it helped when the nurse took care of everything. I still feel a little soreness, but nothing I can't handle."

"In that case, let's get this tiebreaker done with and go home." I suggested. "We'll have the whole weekend to just take a breather."

"Sounds _so_ good to me." Faith agreed expressively.

By the time we returned back to our school team, Dean Cadance was pretty much given the confidence to carry on with the tiebreaker for the Friendship Games. Other than her, it was appalling to see how none of the other students approached Faith to find out how she had been doing. I assumed that they either didn't care, like Sour Sweet or Sugarcoat, or they thought it wasn't anything worth asking about.

As for the weather, the wind had picked up, and the skies were filled with dark clouds. I was surprised to see that we were going to go on with these games. After all, thunderstorms didn't appear to be too unlikely with the given forecast.

I had noticed Twilight keeping to herself in the back, and I was just about to confront her regarding what happened earlier. However, Principal Grinch stepped in front of my path and approached Faith and me. I automatically expected that she was going to grill us for losing the race.

"Star Chaser. I'll have you know that you had the perfect opportunity to win that race. Yet, you let it easily slip out of your fingers."

"…I know." I acknowledged. "You're right. I could have easily won that race, but I'm sorry, ma'am. There's no way I was going to leave someone important to me in the dust like that."

"I'm afraid the students here at Canterlot High School have brushed off on you." She sternly mentioned. "I wouldn't be surprised if you begin slacking in your assignments and eventually failing in your subjects. This is not good. With the kind of actions and behavior you've shown us, I don't see you graduating anytime soon."

My eyebrows furrowed as she stated this. She wasn't mentioning this directly, but I started feeling as if there was some kind of threat hidden between the lines. In turn, this began to anger me, but I tried my best to quell that anger before responding to her.

"I don't know what you expect me to say. I already apologized."

"You did, but apologies will get you nowhere in the world, Star Chaser." She replied bluntly. "However, you _do_ have an opportunity to redeem yourself." She turned over to Faith. "Both of you."

I picked up my head with brows still drawn together. "You want us to win the tiebreaker, right?"

"Precisely." Grinch answered. "However, I want the two of you to _show_ me that you're willing to go above and beyond for Crystal Prep. I want you two to prove to me that you're capable of winning this tiebreaker for all of us here."

"And how do we do that?"

Grinch grabbed a hold of her spectacles and wiped them with a handkerchief as she answered. "That vehicle you raced with in the previous event." She paused and fixed her glasses upon her nose. "I want you to bring it here and place it among the bushes nearby."

"What? Why?" I asked, feeling a sense of dread coming from her request.

"For this tiebreaker, you'll be searching for your school's flag. When the time comes, I want you ride that vehicle outside the school and scout out for our flag. With this, the rest of us will only have to concern ourselves with the interior of the building."

"But isn't that cheating?!" Faith immediately questioned.

"I have my beliefs that the competition is using some kind of unfair advantage." Grinch calmly explained herself. "Wasn't it you, Star Chaser, who believed that one of the girls from the other team caused Faith Meadows to fall off the bike and in turn cost you the race?"

My fist clenched at the thought. Did she overhear us? Did she also see how Rainbow Dash magically grew wings? Did she even see what Twilight's device was doing to the space around us?

"Yes."

"Then surely, it'd be justified to fight fire with fire. That _is_ the most logical thing to do, after all. To level the playing field with an exploiter, you must become one yourself."

I didn't like the way she said that. Not at all. But at this point, I didn't really care anymore. She gave us a chance to regain our 'guaranteed graduation' plan, and at the very least, I wanted to make sure Faith wouldn't lose it.

"Sure… Whatever you say, ma'am…" I forced out through clenched teeth and began making my way back to where we had last competed.

"Since the score's tied, the final event will determine the winner of the Friendship Games." I heard Dean Cadance announce.

"Somewhere on campus, a pennant from each school has been hidden. The first team to find their school's flag and bring it back wins."

"And as soon as our teams are ready, we'll begin…"

I heard the sound of grass being quickly crunched as Faith caught up to me. "No way. Are you really going to do what she tells you to do?"

"I don't care at this point, Faith." I admitted frankly. "I don't care about these stupid Friendship Games at all. If it's what she wants, then it's what she'll get. Whatever brings this day closer to an end."

I heard a soft sigh come from Faith's end.

"I guess we'll be partners in crime then…"

I didn't want to directly involve Faith with my 'misdeed', but she insisted. After recovering the dirt bike from the motocross race, I made sure to do just as Grinch demanded and brought it over to the bushes near the school wall. However, when I took another look at where the teams had been lined up, I noticed some kind of commotion going on with Twilight. Because of this sight, I began to head straight for it.

"Chase?" I heard Faith question.

"Imagine all I'll learn by setting it free…" I heard Twilight sing as she oddly walked to the center of the field with her device in hand.

Something inside me immediately began twisting and turning, and the sense that something absolutely horrid was going to happen flicked on.

"Twilight…" I called out, but it was obviously too soft.

" _Unleash the magic, free the magic now_ "

"If both teams are ready..." A voice announced in the microphone.

" _Unleash the magic, free the magic now"_

"And now winning these games depends on me…" Twilight stopped and pressed a finger on the top of her device.

"What are you doing?" I raised my voice and began working into a jog.

" _Unleash the magic, free the magic now"_

"And what doors might open if I try to use it…" She furrowed her eyebrows as the glow of her device reflected off her glasses.

"...the last event of the Friendship Games begins..."

" _Unleash the magic, free the magic now"_

"Twilight!" I shouted as I began reaching out.

"But the magic's what I really want to see!"

" _Unleash the magic, free the magic. Unleash the magic, free the magic."_

" **Stop!** " I barked.

"Now!"

Immediately, as soon as the last event was set to begin, Twilight's hands pulled away from each other and opened the device in her hands. The ball of energy I had seen glowing inside exploded and sent a strong burst of wind in every direction, ceasing my movement for a short moment.

When I had fully recovered from the burst of energy, I noticed Twilight had no longer been on the ground. She was slowly being lifted up in the air, and that ball of energy that her device had contained was steadily growing in size. When it had reached her hands, she helplessly turned back towards the other competitors from our school. Nevertheless, no one seemed to move a muscle.

" **Twilight!** " I called out loudly and tried to reach out my hand towards her.

" _Chase!_ " She noticed me below her and struggled to free out one of her hands from inside the expanding sphere in front of her. " _Help…! Me…!"_ By the time she had been able to successfully free her hand and hold it out, she had already been sucked in for the most part, and there was no possible way I could grab ahold of her hand, despite how much I stretched mine.

I was stuck with helplessly watching as she screamed and continued to be lifted away from me. The orb she had been trapped in blinked heavily before sending out an extremely blinding light. When it faded away, the orb of energy was gone, but in its place stood a new creature. It was something I was unable to completely comprehend inside my head. The easiest way to explain everything that had happened was to believe I was having a nightmare, and it was only a matter of time when I'd wake up.

The creature cackled and turned towards a particular person on Canterlot High's side.

"You were right! I didn't understand magic before, but I do now!"

Her voice was extremely familiar, but it had been corrupted by a villainous tone. Taking a better look at this creature before us, I began to believe that this had to be Twilight, but for some reason, that 'magic' changed her.

Before I could spectate any further, a beam shot out from her hands and struck something behind me. I turned to find that the statue of Canterlot High's mascot had been crumbling to pieces. From where the mascot once stood, some kind of a rift cut through and opened to reveal another unfamiliar place like last time.

From this rift, a large crack began spreading across the ground until this creature opened another portal in its way besides the former statue. However, what alarmed me more was the puppy that had been too close by this opening. I realized it had been Spike, and it appeared he had been slipping in. He desperately tried to hold any kind of ground he could still see. I didn't have time to think of a way on how to approach this. Instead, I dove straight for him. He had just started falling in before I reached out an arm towards him and grabbed him by his collar. I began having a little of a hard time trying to pull him out, and with all the possible new portals opening up behind me, I felt my heart race as my body panicked.

Fortunately, I felt someone grab my shoulder and pull me out as I held onto Spike. As soon as I had him safely in my arms, I looked behind me to find Faith worriedly tugging at me.

"Chase! We have to get out of here!"

I turned my head and searched for the being responsible for this mess. She continued to shoot out whatever magic she apparently had and carelessly caused more rifts to open up. I quickly stood up and held out Spike towards Faith.

"Hold on to Spike and get somewhere safe, Faith. I think whatever that thing is supposed to be is actually Twilight. I have to try to stop her!"

I began moving after giving my request to Faith, but she instantly grabbed ahold of my hand. "Are you crazy?! Do you see what's she doing!? You'll get hurt!"

"What else do you expect me to do?" I asked, attempting to pull myself out from her grip. "She's going to tear reality apart before we know it! If Twilight is still in that monster, then at the very least I can try reaching out to her!"

"I can't let you go!" I heard Faith's voice crumble as her grip on me tightened. I focused on trying to slip my hand out, but my eyes were immediately drawn to her face. She had started to tear up, and soon she was beginning to sob more than she had been holding back during the motocross race. "You're important to me too, Chase. I know you want to help, but…if I were to lose you…" She shut her eyes and vigorously shook her head. "I can't imagine being able to live afterwards!" She lifted her eyelids and allowed the stream of tears that had quickly built up inside to fall out. "I…I love you, Chase!"

I continued staring at her as I tried to take in everything she had just said. As much as I was itching to engage in a heart-to-heart conversation with her, it was nearly impossible to ignore the feud around us. However, with her display of intimate feelings, I was able to easily respond with a solution that we'd most likely be able to agree on.

"You said we're partners in crime, right?" I reminded. "Then, how about this? Let's do something to stop this together!"

She nodded fervently and attempted to shake off her lingering tears. "Whatever it is, I don't want you to do it alone."

A bright blue beam volleyed onto the front of the school past us. In an instant, the solid ground there shattered like a broken mirror, and its pieces began falling inwards towards the portal inside. Students began slipping in, but the others around them courageously caught ahold of them and began to pull them up. Throughout this turmoil, my eyes caught something dangerously close towards the edge of the continuously shattering ground.

"The device that Twilight was wearing!" I pointed out. "If we can get that, then maybe we fix this!"

Faith observed where I had been pointing. "If you go straight for it, you'll fall in, Chase! The ground over there is breaking by the second, and I don't know if I'll be able to help you out of there."

I understood what Faith was getting at. In other words, the ground was practically thin ice. The moment I step towards the object of interest, I might end up breaking the ground underneath me and fall in. Even with Faith there to pull me out, it was possible that she'd end up falling in herself as well. The only way I could think of getting that device with little problem was by getting in and out quick.

I thought to myself for a few short seconds before something immediately clicked inside me. I glanced over to the nearby bushes and then turned to Faith. "Faith, you trust me, right?"

"Of course, I do." She responded with concern as she held Spike close.

I grabbed a hold of her hand this time and led her towards those bushes. "Come on!"

I stuck my hands through, spent a short moment searching, and pulled out the handlebars when I found them.

"What are you going to do?" Faith asked as she observed me pull out the dirt bike we had hidden earlier.

"We're going to get that device." I told her. "Sit behind me, and I'll drive the bike. Can I count on you to pick it up when I pass by it?"

She nodded firmly. "I'll do whatever it takes!"

"Alright." I pulled my leg over the seat and settled down. "Get on." She followed my instructions loyally and nestled Spike near her stomach.

"Hang on, Spike." She advised as she kept her left hand on my waist.

"The hole is spreading." I notified as I started up the bike. "Get ready, Faith, because I'm going for it!" Remembering how I gained the lead back in the motocross race, I began following the same example as I grew close to the invisible edge the device had been lying on. Making sure not to cross that edge, I called over Faith. "It's all yours, Faith!"

She noticed the device and began leaning to the right as quickly yet safely as she could. The more she leaned in that direction, the more her nails practically dug into my stomach. I couldn't tell how much Faith had been able to stretch out in order to grab it, but I had every confidence that she would succeed.

"G-Got it!" Her body flung back against me.

When we were at a safe enough distance, I skidded into a stop. This caused for the device to slip out Faith's hands, and she juggled with it a bit until Spike hopped and caught it with his teeth.

"Nice catch, Spike!" Faith praised and petted him as she recovered it. Afterwards, she hovered it over me and looked forward for our next move. "What now?"

I grabbed this device of chaos and studied it for a moment. "I-I'm not completely sure." I almost frantically analyzed it all over, ridiculously hoping for some kind of switch that would somehow destroy and break the energy that had been released. "This is crazy thinking, Faith, but I'm thinking we should break it into pieces. Maybe then it'll somehow end everything."

"Are you sure?" She asked, leaning over her face enough to take a look at mine.

"Believe me, Faith." I honestly shared. "There's no freaking way I can even logically comprehend what's happening to us right now, so I can't give you proof that breaking this apart will fix everything. It's the only thing I can think of!"

Before I could make any rash decision, we heard a voice desperately crying out to us. I pulled my attention away from the device and noticed Sunset Shimmer running in our direction.

"I need that device!" She immediately held out her hand when she reached us.

"Are you kidding?!" I pulled it further away from her. "You're the _last_ person I'd ever give something as important as this to!"

"Listen, I know you don't trust me!" She pressed her fingers against her chest as if she had been ready to speak from the heart. "I get it! I did some absolutely horrible things in the past, and I understand if you hate me for it. That's not who I am anymore! You don't have to like me, but I'm _begging_ you, if you want to see Twilight again, I need you to hand that device over to me! _Please_ trust me!"

I couldn't deny her earnest look, but there was still a decent amount of disdain and doubt I had left for her. How could she be so sure that she knew what to do to make things right? At the same time, what kind of bad could she do with having this device in the first place? There were so many things running through my head, and considering the pressuring situation we were in, I couldn't think clearly.

I wasn't ready to give up the object that Faith and I had worked together to retrieve.

"Chase…" I heard beside me, causing me to turn and notice Faith. "I know you don't trust her, but you trust _me_ , right? I don't know how, but I have a feeling that Sunset Shimmer knows what she's doing. So, please, trust me and give it to her."

There was still a sense of doubt that was causing me to grip the device with all I had, but it was inevitable that it would be broken, at least for the time being.

"Fine!" I held it out towards Sunset Shimmer. "Take it!"

For some reason, Sunset Shimmer continued staring at us even though I held out the device for her to take. I was on the verge of throwing it towards her, but I unexpectedly noticed something shimmer in her eyes. It looked like she had received some kind of great epiphany and was struck with awe by it.

Something on the device glowed and hummed between us. She quickly turned her eyes to it and finally grabbed ahold it. "Thank you!" She expressed.

"You better end this and bring Twilight back!" I somewhat threatened.

"I will." She answered with a nod of confidence and immediately left to confront the creature of destruction. "This isn't the way!" She shouted towards the captor of Twilight's heart. "I know you feel powerful right now, like you can have everything you want! I've been where you are, I've made the same mistake you're making! I put on a crown and, just like you, I was overwhelmed by the magic it contained! I thought it could get me everything I wanted!"

"Oh, you're wrong." The evil being shook her head easily as if Sunset Shimmer's words had no effect whatsoever. "Unlike you, I _can_ have everything I want!"

"No, you can't." Sunset Shimmer argued. "Even with all that magic and power, you'll still be alone! True magic comes from honesty!" She held the device upwards, and beams of light immediately shot out from each of those friends of hers. "Loyalty! Laughter! Generosity! Kindness!" She paused and glanced towards us for a brief second. "…purity." Each beam of light that appeared within her friends gathered together and stopped inside the device she held up. She furrowed her eyebrows once more and faced the demon ahead of her as she began to be lifted up off the ground. "I understand you, Twilight, and I want to show you the most important magic of all..." She clasped the device shut like the compacts girls used for vanity purposes and threw it towards the ground with all her might. As it broke apart, another ball of energy spontaneously formed. This time, Sunset Shimmer willingly succumbed to its growth. With another repeat of a bright flash, we were allowed to witness a completely different person in front of us. It was obviously still Sunset Shimmer, but there were major differences about her. She still looked like she was easily in control of herself, and she had, in fact, grew literal wings made up of shimmering light. Her hair lifted upwards like the horn that formed on her head just above her eyes. All in all, she looked exactly like a goddess straight out of a mythical fantasy video game. "...the Magic of Friendship!" She declared.

With one swift movement of her hands, a ray of her magic struck the rifts that had been opened by her opponent, and they were immediately patched up in that instant. Clearly stricken with fear, Twilight's demon raced towards Sunset Shimmer to put an end to her good. Sunset Shimmer immediately retaliated, and the two clashed together exactly how a hero and villain would in a movie. This ultimately led to the both of them releasing their beams of magic at the same time, and these beams grinded against each other. For a moment, they were at a standstill, but it was only a matter of time before Sunset Shimmer was being overtaken by the opposition. A loud cackle erupted from the side of evil due to this struggling circumstance.

In hopes to somehow help our hero, I prepared my voice to call out for Twilight, but it appeared someone beat me to it.

"Twilight!"

I looked downwards and noticed Spike giving her the biggest puppy eyes I had ever seen. Hold on a second… Was it Spike who said that?!

Twilight noticeably turned in our direction, and, for a second there, it looked as he had caught the _real_ Twilight's attention. When she was distracted with us, Sunset Shimmer took the opportunity and gave her power a final push. Her beam of magic quickly advanced and was on the brim of overtaking her as a whole.

"Noooo!" Her enemy cried out before everything was drowned in a silencing light once more.

In the next moment, we witnessed the two back on the restored pavement, and they looked as if they had been reverted back to normal, back before all this 'magical' business had erupted into pure chaos.

"I am so sorry..." Twilight pulled away from Sunset Shimmer and adverted her tear-ridden eyes to the side. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen..."

"I know." Sunset Shimmer understood. "And going by my own experiences, they'll forgive you."

Spike immediately hopped off from my lap and barked happily as he dashed over to Twilight. He had somehow found her pair of glasses and returned them to her when he jumped onto her arms. At the sight of her own loving companion, she giggled cheerfully.

"Haah…" I sighed in utter relief. "It's finally over…"

I was sort of expecting Faith to say something behind me, but she surprised me when she just wrapped her arms around my chest and squeezed tightly instead. Nevertheless, that touching moment was cut short when we heard a bitter voice angrily yell out.

"Principal Celestia, on behalf of Crystal Prep, I demand that you forfeit the Friendship Games!" Principal Grinch, whom I realized had been missing for the past several minutes, suddenly appeared before Principal Celestia. "Clearly, CHS has had unfair advantage for quite some time! And it's certainly obvious that your students have been using magic for their own benefit!"

Seriously?! After everything that just happened, you're still obsessed over winning those stupid games?!

"I'd like to think that saving the world benefits us all." Principal Celestia wittily responded, her vice principal and even Dean Cadance joining together at her side.

"At least they didn't manipulate Twilight into releasing all the stolen magic and turning into a power-crazed magical creature that tried to rip the world apart just to win a game." I heard a familiar voice stretch out quickly into a single second.

By the sound of her almost deadpan, utterly frank, and uncaring voice, it was easily none other than Sugarcoat. After instilling a short moment of silence from everybody watching, Pinkie Pie was the first one to speak up. "Wow! That's a lot to take in when you say it all at once."

"That's ridiculous!" Grinch denied.

"Nope, that's pretty much what happened." The puppy in Twilight's arms actually spoke out loud, striking shock to those, like Faith and me, that were witnessing this for the first time. I was sure, had this happened earlier, we would have been completely freaking out over a freaking talking dog, but considering everything that _just_ happened, I think we were sort of desensitized to the idea of the impossible happening.

"Actually, we're _all_ to blame." Sour Sweet sadly chimed in, but she quickly burnt her voice of honey with what was to come next. " _Mostly it was her_." She scowled bitterly towards our principal.

"Obviously my students have been infected with your magic, but I plan on taking all of this up with the school board!" Grinch rebutted.

"Good." Principal Celestia encouraged. "I'm sure they would be very interested in hearing all about the magical students with wings."

"Oh, and the portals to different dimensions." The vice principal chirped at.

"And don't forget to tell them about the talking dog." Dean Cadance surprisingly added in with a jubilant giggle.

"Because that would _never_ ruin your reputation." Spike reminded.

For the first time since I've attended Crystal Prep, I don't believe I've ever seen the Grinch in the kind of state she was now in. She was at a loss of words, and it wasn't because she was annoyed, angry, or disappointed. It was more because she honestly didn't know what else to say. It was checkmate for her, yet, her eyes roamed among the students who now turned against her. Just as we had reached the group that united together, her eyes stopped on Faith and me. However, she particularly eyed me, and she shifted her sight down to a particular part of my chest.

" _Star Chaser!_ " She frightfully singled me out as she pointed a sharp finger at me. She turned over her shaking hand and gestured me over with that same finger. I slowly stepped forward, but I didn't feel too comfortable in fully approaching her. Nevertheless, it didn't seem like this mattered much with her next order. "Give me your video camera."

It took a second to realize her intent and connected the dots. When she saw the video camera I had actually been unaware of wearing for some time now, due to all the drama that unfolded earlier, she realized that I had recorded everything since the second event. She didn't have anything but her word against ours, but if she got ahold of the footage on here, I was sure that she'd be able to manipulate it to her favor.

"Star Chaser, I _order_ you to give me your video camera at once!" She commanded impatiently after I had been too busy thinking to myself. I wanted to so desperately refuse her order, but there was something about where this conversation was leading to that struck me with fear. "If you do not obey me this instant, I will have you _expelled_!"

My heart skipped a beat at that last word. Crystal Prep wasn't important to me. It never was. However, my parents had been expecting me to graduate from this academy. They made sure of that when they bragged about it to all their co-workers and friends. If they found out that I wasn't going to be attending Crystal Prep anymore, they were _sure_ to be steamed.

"No!" A girl shouted and came to my aid. "Even if he wanted to give you the camera, I won't let him!" Faith positioned herself with an arm in front of me and appeared to root herself to the ground we stood on. "If you're going to expel someone, then it has to be me, because there's no way I'm going to let you have his camera!"

Principal Grinch's fingers balled up into a fist. "I'll have the both of you expelled for disrespecting and disobeying your principal! You two have no place in Crystal Prep!"

"What are you talking about?" Faith argued. "I'm the only one who's disobeying you. You have nothing against Chase!"

"You heard her, Grinch…" I unexpectedly slipped past my lips softly, shocking our despicable principal. "I know why you want this video camera, and you have no right to take it. Go ahead. Try expelling us." I lifted my head towards her and felt myself staring down my fears. "In case you forgot, there's a lot of things in here you probably don't want the school board seeing…"

I was referring to the times where Principal Grinch had exposed herself as a dishonest official, such as wanting us to cheat during this last event. I didn't know if she forgot about that, or if she was counting on getting the camera by using the threat of expulsion before I would be able to catch on, but I wasn't letting any of us down without a fight.

The two of us stared daggers at each other until it appeared she finally surrendered.

"We'll see about that." She fixed her suit and heatedly walked off.

I felt like I was finally able to breathe and lifted my face up to the sky. The dark clouds that had once filled the space above us now started to dissipate. In fact, as if there was yet another addition to the collection of unbelievable events from today, it almost appeared as if a ray of light had been shining down on Faith and me.

"Well, I know these Friendship Games haven't been what any of us expected…" Principal Celestia thawed out the ice that Grinch had left behind. "…but given what we've all just been through, I think it's fair to declare us all winners."

With that said, everybody grouped together for a bombardment of cheers.

* * *

As Crystal Prep Academy waited for their buses to return, they surprisingly hung around students from Canterlot High. It seemed as if the reason for the whole drama dropping out of nowhere lately was to actually bring everyone together. That's what I wanted to believe anyway.

We had all been given gold medals, but that honestly felt too cheesy for me. I felt that I, at the very least, didn't really win or do anything worthy of a gold medal. As everyone from both our schools talked, I spent the majority of the time sitting on Canterlot High's steps and thinking intently over my future. Faith wasn't with me since she decided to talk with Sunset Shimmer about certain things. I could have gone with her, but I decided to give them their space. It was mostly between the two of them after all.

"You're not going to get expelled, if that's what you're worried about."

Dean Cadance had accompanied me by my side on the school steps.

"Heh." I chuckled at the irony I found with that statement. "I know I won't get expelled, but that's kind of the thing…" I turned my head to face her directly. "I don't…really want to go to Crystal Prep anymore, Dean Cadance."

"Why?" She asked with a great deal of concern. "Are the courses too hard for you? Is it Principal Cinch?"

"Hm. It's not really any of those. I mean, I don't like Principal Grinch, and I'd hate to stay if she's going to do everything in her power to make me fail or something. But, to be honest, I've never really been _happy_ there. In fact, the only person that has kept me going is Faith." My mouth curved into a smile at the thought of her, and I found my eyes wandering for her figure among the school grounds. "I had no friends when I first started Crystal Prep, and I found myself hanging on to the idea of having Twilight as a potential friend since she obviously had no friends either. But, everything changed when Faith and I met, and speaking for her, I don't think she likes being at Crystal Prep either. I think she'd rather be someplace like…"

"Here?" Dean Cadance finished.

"Yeah." I began wondering if the incident during freshman year would still be a big deal.

"You could always transfer here, you know?" Dead Cadance mentioned. "Those credits that you earn for university? You keep whatever you've already earned and finished. Your classes this school year are actually close to coming to an end, aren't they?"

"Yeah…" I responded, but something was obviously still keeping me in the dark. "…but I don't think I could transfer out so easily."

"What's holding you back?"

"My parents." I stated bluntly. "Ever since I got invited to attend Crystal Prep, they've been egging me to stay and finish. I _know_ they'll be so angry and disappointed if I leave. They'll probably think it's because I was too lazy and wanted to quit."

"You should talk to them." Dean Cadance suggested. "Give them the _real_ reason you want to leave, and show it to them if you have to." She noticed the camera still hooked onto my chest and tapped it lightly. "I think you have all you need."

Hearing that, I felt a small glimmer of hope. I _had_ to try. If what happened here today wouldn't convince them to allow me to leave, then nothing else would. "Yeah, okay." I accepted.

"In the end, it should be _your_ choice, Chase. Whatever happens, if you and Faith decide to transfer out, all you need to do is come talk to me and I'll take care of everything." She noticed someone standing nearby and gestured her into our conversation. "After all, if it helps make your decision, I know a certain someone who's looking forward in moving to Canterlot High."

I found Twilight shyly waving at me with a sheepish grin.

"Wait. Twilight?!" I looked over to Dean Cadance for a confirmation. "You mean she's—?!" Receiving a nod from our dean, I turned back to Twilight to hear it come straight from the horse's mouth. "Twilight, aren't you always studying and doing research and stuff? Why would you want to come to Canterlot High? Crystal Prep is definitely more your type of school!"

"That's just it." She explained. "All I ever do is keep myself held up in a room and study, and I learned that there's something much more that I was missing at Crystal Prep. Friendship." She paused for a moment to reveal a guilt-ridden frown and looked at me. "You were always trying to invite me along with you and Faith whenever you went out to do things. I'm sorry I always turned you down. If it's okay with you, I'd like to spend more time with you, along with every student here at Canterlot High."

I shook my head. "I understand, Twilight. And yeah, I'm sure Faith would love to have you around whenever we make plans. That is, if you aren't already hanging around your new friends over there." I looked in the direction of the girls Sunset Shimmer had been friends with and mentioned that last remark half-jokingly. "I still don't know for sure if I'm going to transfer to Canterlot High. I still need to talk to my parents about everything. But, whatever happens," I faced Dean Cadance. "I'll be sure to let you know. As for Faith, I know she's always going to keep herself glued to me wherever I go." I mentioned with one last chuckle.

"My office is always open." Dean Cadance reminded as she stood up. "Even though you're still thinking about it, I'll let Principal Celestia know about the possibility of a few extra students."

She was about to leave until I called out her attention for one last thing. "Oh, Dean Cadance? I don't think I'll be riding the bus back to Crystal Prep. I'm not exactly in the mood to be around Principal Grinch." I informed her a little humorously.

"Are you…going to walk back home?" She asked a little worriedly.

"Nope. I brought my bike. It's a nice afternoon. I think Faith will love riding home from here."

Dean Cadance chuckled. "Yes, I think so too. Alright, then." She proceeded to continue heading along with her business.

"Well…I guess I better go with her." Twilight mentioned a little nervously.

"Yeah, um." I rubbed the back of my head a little uncomfortably as well. "I'll see you later."

She returned one last smile before she walked off, and I decided to go find Faith.

It surprised me when I found Faith giggling in what appeared to be an engaging conversation with Sunset Shimmer. Just as if she had immediately sniffed out my scent, she turned towards me and waved me in. "Chase, over here!" I somewhat hesitantly stepped in, remembering the last few harsh words I had told the person she had been speaking to. "Sunset said that she met another girl who almost looks just like me! Isn't that weird? How have I not seen her before?!"

"Another girl?" I asked, cocking my eyebrow and placing a hand on my hip.

"It's a long story." Sunset Shimmer answered. When she placed her hand on my shoulder all of a sudden, I almost jumped out of my skin. "About before… I'm sorry. Freshman year, when Faith was still here, I was a horrible person. I'm sure it's no surprise when I tell you it all came from my own problems and insecurities, right? But, then I met a couple of friends that turned my life around. It wasn't easy at first. After how I acted to every student here at CHS, I had to earn their trust back, but with the help of so many of my amazing friends…" She glanced back at the five girls Faith and I would see her hang around with the entire time. "I've been able to be myself without many problems, and now that I've met with Faith here again…" She took a second to glance towards Faith. "…I think I can finally check off the list of people I need to apologize to."

I drew out a heavy sigh. "As long as Faith is cool, I'm cool too."

"I'm _so_ cool." Faith giddily joked.

Still, I wasn't so eager to start skipping in joy. "But there's still that video…"

"What video?" Sunset Shimmer asked.

"There's this video online." I told her. "During the Freshman Fair at your school, when the whole…'incident' happened. Anyone who watched and continues to watch that video might think Faith is some kind of thief."

Sunset Shimmer's eyes drew back in thought, and after a few seconds, they appeared to widen in realization. "Oh, that? I'm glad you reminded me. You leave that to me, and I'll make sure everyone knows that truth on what happened."

"Seriously?" I asked with a reasonable amount of skepticism. "How are you going to do that?"

"Back in the day…" She began explaining as she pulled out her phone and tapped it a bit. "I was the queen of social media when it came to doing the horrible stuff I used to do. Just leave it to me. I promise I'll make things right." Her eyes drew over to Faith. "You still have my number? I'm going to need your help later."

"I…" Faith began rubbing the back of her head embarrassingly. "…I kind of deleted it…after…"

"No biggie." Sunset Shimmer shook both her hands and head. "I understand. If you don't mind, I'll read it out to you."

"Okay, sure!" Faith drew out her phone and made a few swipes.

I felt a few pokes on my arm and found Sunset Shimmer elbowing me with a smirk. "You too."

"S-sure…" I reached for the phone in my pocket to follow Faith's movements.

Faith and I were formally introduced to Sunset Shimmer's friends, and especially remembering their actions from the Friendship Games, I noted that they were quite a unique bunch. Sunset Shimmer also explained what had happened back in the motocross race when Faith and her fell over. She had said that some kinds of tentacle-like vines had appeared out of nowhere and pulled Faith off of our bike with her leg. Sunset Shimmer was also a victim of this, having Rainbow Dash come to her aid. Of course, if I hadn't seen what I saw today, I _probably_ would have had a hard time believing her. Either way, I decided to leave it in the dust, especially when Twilight later joined our group and confirmed Sunset Shimmer's story by referring to those rifts that had opened up. That's where the vines apparently came from. Nevertheless, I didn't really stay much for conversation as I was called out by another student from Crystal Prep. It was Sunny Flare who called me over, and she stood by a crossed-arm Sour Sweet and a rocking Lemon Zest.

"Come on, Chase. The buses are here." She pointed the charter buses out with a flick of her hand. "Why don't you sit next to me on the ride home?"

Sour Sweet clearly narrowed her eyes, and it wasn't a surprise since they were the ones who were usually together.

"Heh. Sorry, Sunny." I apologized with a sort of lop-sided grin. "I'm not getting on the bus."

"What? Why not?" Hey eyebrows furrowed as she placed both hands on her hips.

"I just thought I might ride home on my bike instead." I answered her, taking a long glance at the sky before shifting my eyes back onto hers. "I know you're apparently 'interested' in dating me or whatever, but just to let you know, I _might_ be leaving Crystal Prep."

"Wait, what?" In a jolt, she leaned in towards me. "Are you serious? Is this about that expulsion thing Principal Cinch was talking about? It'll never happen." She brushed off the idea with her hand.

"No." I crossed my arms in response. "I just feel like leaving."

Sunny Flare's eyes widened as a reaction. "Huh? No way. For real? You can't be serious."

"Why are you so surprised?" I couldn't help but laugh as I asked. "It's not like we were good friends or anything. After all, you kind of ignored me most of the time until you decided to 'warm' up to me all of a sudden."

"I was waiting for _you_ to talk to _me_ , jerk!" She unexpectedly snapped, causing me to flinch slightly. Sunny Flare appeared to catch herself and immediately cleared her throat as she unnecessarily brushed her skirt. "I don't do first approaches. I wait for them to come to me, in case you haven't noticed. But, sometimes you can be so clueless, you know? I can't believe you actually made me come to you first."

"I didn't make you do anything! You didn't _have_ to come to me first." I returned with a slight raise in my voice. "I heard about how you only wanted to date me just because of my eyes. You think I want to be somebody who's only with you, so you could attract more attention to yourself?"

Sunny Flare began revealing a side of herself that I didn't believe I had ever seen until just now. A glow radiated within her cheeks as she adverted her gaze away from me in embarrassment. "I know I said some…not nice things…but, I don't know. Your eyes are unique and…cute…and, I kind of wanted to get to know you more. But this whole time, ever since we started at Crystal Prep, you were always the one who looked like you could care less about me! That just…just ticked me off! And even when I tried to obviously get you interested in me, you always paid more attention to Faith! Like, seriously, what did she do to make you care about her so much?"

"She's just…someone I really click with, Sunny." I was sure that I possibly would have entered into a fiery debate with her had it not been for her sudden confession. In fact, I was still trying to process it in the back of my mind. "You might get other guys to fawn all over you like nothing, but I'm just different, I guess."

Sunny Flare sighed heavily. "Obviously." She paused and looked away for a moment. "I know how Faith thinks I'm a bad person, and I wouldn't be surprised if you believe her without a doubt. But, to tell you the truth, I don't want to take advantage of you, Chase." She admitted with a frown before she turned to me with a deep kind of sadness in her eyes. "Like I said, I said some pretty stupid stuff, but now you've got me hooked. I went for the bait that you apparently didn't even know you put out. I want to get to know you more, and it hurts my pride to say that, but it's true. If you hate me and don't want to bother with me after you leave Crystal Prep…" She took a moment to shrug and look away. "Then, whatever. I'll probably just get over you anyway."

I couldn't tell whether she really meant that last part, or if she was just trying to keep whatever pride she still had left. Either way, I kind of found it amusing to see this side of her that she had been hiding for so long from me.

"Geez, you don't have to be so dramatic, you know?" I joked and softly laughed. "I don't hate you at all. It's not like we can't be friends or anything."

"Just friends, huh? You are such a jerk…" Sunny Flare wondered to herself before she suddenly held her hand out to me. "Give me your phone."

"What? Why?" I questioned.

"Just do it."

I didn't think she had any bad intentions, or at least, I was hoping she didn't, so I pulled it out and handed it to her. She nearly swiped it from me as if she had been frustrated enough and began working her fingers over the screen. After a moment, she stopped to look at something.

"Wow. She's even your wallpaper on your phone?"

With a heavy blush growing in my cheeks, I quickly swiped my phone back. "Did you want my phone just so you could look through it or something?"

"Chill out." The frustration in her face seemed to disappear once we switched places with our vulnerabilities. "I left you something special. You better not delete it, or I swear I'll find you and hurt you."

"This chick…" I muttered under my breath as I stared back at her in bewilderment.

"You've really put a dent on my pride, you know that?" She crossed her arms and glared softly at me. "I'm not leaving until I take something from you."

"Let me guess. A date?" I instantly assumed.

She only rolled her eyes and shook her head with a disapproving frown. She unexpectedly embraced me for a moment before pulling up her phone and taking a photo of the both of us. She pulled away and looked at her phone before scrunching her face at the screen. "Yuck. Could you at least pretend you're happy?"

I sighed and found my eyes rolling in their sockets as well. I _did_ say we could be friends, and after her wave of pride-hurting confession, I supposed I could at least her give that.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's take another one."

After our reshoot, Sunny Flare began boarding the bus as she waved back with her fingers. "I'll see you around. You know how to reach me. Let's go, Sour Sweet."

I was about to release a sigh of relief before my phone slipped out of my hand.

"Yeah. I got it." Sour Sweet responded somewhat unenthusiastically as she fumbled around with _my_ phone.

"You too?!" I nearly shouted before she gave me back my phone a few seconds later.

"There." Her usual feigned smile popped onto her face. "You're welcome. I even added a special surprise, _just for you_." She mentioned that sweetly as if she had been speaking to a child. She waved and returned a cheery grin as she boarded the bus. "I'm looking forward to seeing you again!" She revealed the sour side of her as soon as her back was to me. " _Not…_ " She muttered.

"Why do you have to be such a—"

" _A what, huh?!_ " She immediately dashed towards me and nearly bashed me with her head.

I had to admit that she honestly almost instilled a great deal of fear in me with that sudden fiery reaction. "…grouch?" I responded while slightly flinching.

"Sunny Flare wasn't the only one you thought you were too good for." Sour Sweet answered as she gave me her back and crossed her arms.

Wait, what?!

"You were always so nasty to me!" I defended myself. "You think I never heard your little cranky comments whenever you'd see me? Umph-!"

Sour Sweet suddenly attacked me, not with her fists, but with an unexpected hug instead. Afterwards, she pulled away as she looked at me in an entirely different manner. She held her hands together in front of her skirt and pulled out a genuine smile for me. "It's good seeing you, Chase." Just as I was on the verge of believing her, the kindness in her face was ripped off as she was soon starting to board the bus. "There, you happy?" She looked over her shoulder at me and asked. "Bye, now."

With a slightly agape jaw, I only shook my head in disbelief before I was greeted with yet another warm embrace. It was Lemon Zest, and she was ironically the only one who seemed to be the normal one here. However, I stopped her just before she was about to get on the bus, causing her to remove her headphones and hang them around her neck.

"Hold on. You had your headphones on the entire time." I pointed out. "How did you know I wasn't getting on the bus?"

"Wait, you're not getting on the bus?" She returned a puzzled look on her face.

"…yeah? I thought you were hugging me goodbye." I mentioned.

"Dude, Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare did it, so I did too. I dunno." She shrugged cluelessly.

I guess that's Lemon Zest for you. She was always kind of…out there.

In fact, after going over what just happened with Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare, I began wondering if the 'magic' from here started affecting them too… Or maybe this was all still a dream?


	5. Reflection

**UsagiAngelRabbit: Well, the bloopers for the movie kind of make more sense, seeing as they were based on the movie that was, well, made like a movie. It'd be kind of weird trying to pull that off on here.**

 **Foreststar of WindClan: As for the names, I _kind_ of have a direct explanation for that, but I think I'll wait and see if you possibly catch on towards what I'm getting at later on.**

 **Spero Tenebris: I gotta tell you, I always love reading reviews like these. However, I feel like I might need to clarify a few things. I can say that only Sunny Flare is confirmed to feel _that_ way about Chase, but as for Sour Sweet, that's more a mystery. What I like to do is leave it up to the reader, in a sense. Is it possible that Sour Sweet also feels the same way? Maybe. I guess that's really for you to decide unless it becomes confirmed or something later on. Same thing with Lemon Zest. She might have not had a kind of confession to say, but who knows what's going on inside her head too?**

 **Also, you haven't seen the movie? I know a few people that apparently don't watch the show or movies anymore and stick with this instead. Getting to Faith's confession, you might have a different idea than the way I intended it for it to be expressed. It's totally okay, though, to take it as a "I'm in love with you" confession. However, I suppose the best way to explain it is to see it through the eyes of Chase. For Chase, it was more of a "You mean so much to me" in a platonic kind of way. Of course, it fits just as well if you see it differently as some kind of romantic confession.**

 **Either way, yeah, I don't really think a "date" with each of them to see their compatibility will be happening. The closest to that would probably be a physical hangout, but not with the intention to see if they can romantically hit things off. As for the EG side of the story itself, I can't promise that it'll last long, but with the kind of original content I want to write, I think you might be just as happy if you don't mind that it has nothing to do with MLP.**

 **Shadow Solaris: Actually, I still got one more for you here.**

 **Awesomo3000: "Mmm-wah"? O.o**

 **Overtale: I know right? I _think_ the only reason that they actually included motocross was because of the toys.**

* * *

 _We're going to have lunch in front of the school this afternoon. You two should totally come! I've got something that'll totally blow your minds!_ Sunset Shimmer sent.

 _Totally! Can't wait for my mind to be blown. o((*^▽^*))o. I'll make Chase go if I have to :]._ Faith returned.

 _You know I'm in here, right?_ I added in several seconds later.

I had woken up to a group text from Sunset Shimmer. I hadn't slept over at Faith's house this time, so I ended up getting out of bed later than usual. In fact, it didn't help that I had to exert almost whatever energy I had left to convince my parents to let me transfer out of Crystal Prep yesterday.

* * *

After Faith and I had ridden back home from school, I knew I was going to have to have a talk with my parents, and I wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible. Faith insisted that she'd join me, and as much as I didn't really want to have her get involved, she didn't look like she was going to budge.

She ended up accompanying me with convincing my parents, and since she was there, she was probably able to passively keep the talk from escalating into a shouting argument. I had confronted them in the living room of my house, and it took me a while before I was able to get their full attention. When I had it, I attempted to dive straight to the point. I told them that I thought it would be best that I'd transfer over to Canterlot High, the school that I was originally supposed to attend had I not been accepted to Crystal Prep.

They had started to repeat the 'benefits' of going to Crystal Prep as a counter for my proposal, just as expected. However, this time, I acknowledged those benefits and told them that I would be able to keep those credits I earned from Crystal Prep. Despite being an academy suit for university preparation, I felt I would be absolutely fine in spending the rest of my time in high school at CHS. I made sure to tell them that back at Crystal Prep, everything felt just like research and studying. High school happened only once in a lifetime, and I kind of actually felt jealous of the students at Canterlot High.

Before they could tell me that studying and learning was more important than friendship or something, I dove into the topic of Principal Cinch. I described her behavior from our time in Crystal Prep and especially during the Friendship Games. In an attempt to encourage them to see my side, I even showed them a few clips of her attitude during the Friendship Games. After that section of the talk, it appeared I was able to get into their head a little, but they definitely weren't so liking to the idea of me leaving.

Ultimately, I was finally able to get an answer. In the end, they told me that I could do whatever I wanted to do. Although, they sounded pretty disappointed and even angry with me. In fact, they made sure to warn me that they wouldn't hear any complaints after moving to Canterlot High. I knew they were going to be upset with me for quite a while, but I honestly felt like this was the right thing to do. For all this time, I felt like I was going to Crystal Prep, not for myself, but for them. As mentioned before, I was able to tolerate it because of Faith, but if I had a chance to transfer somewhere I'd be happier at, then I wanted to take it by all means.

"I'm really sorry, Chase…" Faith had apologized to me afterwards when we were walking to her house.

"What for?" I asked for her clarification.

"I don't want to sound like I'm bragging or anything, but I wouldn't have had that kind of trouble with my mom. I kind of feel bad because all I have to do is tell her that I want to transfer back to CHS, and she'll actually be pretty happy that _I'm_ happy."

"Yeah, well…don't feel bad." I stated as I tried to think up the best phrase to use in this situation. "We don't get to choose our family. I just so happened to end up with really strict parents, but you know what? I got to live right next to you, so it's worth it."

"Hehe…" Faith glanced at me in the corner of her eyes and blushed lightly. "You're such a charmer."

I took her words lightly. "Whatever you say…" I crossed my arms and looked up in thought. "I just hope they don't give me flak for going to your house afterwards. If I'm lucky, maybe they just won't talk to me."

"Well, I guess you just need to give them time." Faith advised. "If you can, you could totally stay over for as long as you want." She skipped on ahead until she cut me off on the sidewalk and leaned towards me with her hands behind her back. "You know. Anytime you feel lonely and want to be around someone fun, you can totes come over whenever you want. No questions asked."

And with that remark, I had quickly brought her in for a hug. She was caught off her guard for a bit, but she soon seemed to melt in my arms as she lovingly accepted it.

* * *

It was the weekend, so I didn't have to change into my Crystal Prep uniform. Soon enough, I would pretty much be able to wear whatever I wanted, even at school. That was something I was also looking forward to. No more wearing a thick blazer when I've got to freaking bike to school instead of being driven in an air-conditioned car.

I decided to wear something a little nicer than just casual. I wore an unbuttoned flannel shirt with a white T-shirt underneath, along with a pair of dark denim jeans. I was just about to finish up with my attire for the day until I heard a yelling voice outside my window.

"Come on, Chase! We're going to be late!"

I opened my window and stuck my head out. It was Faith, and she already appeared roaring and ready to go.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm coming!"

Tying up my shoes, I grabbed my bag and raced towards the front door. She already had been expecting me to show up there as she stood in place with her beaming smile, along with her arms behind her back. I was a bit surprised to see her wearing a white polo shirt and one of those frilly skirts. We weren't going to school, so I figured she'd be more spontaneous with her outfit for today.

"You should get up a little earlier, you know that?" She felt the need to say as I grabbed my bike.

"It's the weekend." I excused. "Besides, I don't have any breakfast to look forward to…" I frowned in distress.

"You know you could always come over for breakfast anytime you want, right?" She countered with a grin.

"Yeah, but still…I always just want to sleep in. It sucks getting up early…"

"It's no wonder I'm always the one getting your butt up in the morning!" She lightly shoved me as I was getting on my bike. Immediately afterwards, she threw herself on the seat behind me and unhesitantly wrapped her arms around me.

Hearing a jubilant giggle behind me as she did this, I couldn't help but bring it to her attention. "You're really cheery today. What's with you all of a sudden?"

"What's there not to be so cheery about?" She inquired. "We have two whole days of freedom, and pretty soon we'll be moving to CHS!"

"Hm…" I studied her, but for some reason, the reasons she gave didn't really seem to fit her actual motive. "It's something more than that."

"Like what?" She reacted a little embarrassingly.

"Eh, I don't know." I ignored it for now and began pedaling off. "Either way, I'm glad you're really happy. Your smile's really one of the best parts of the day."

"Mm." She mumbled as I felt her head dig into me. "There you go with the embarrassing stuff again, but I guess that why…"

"Huh?" Her voice had trailed off, and with the wind, I didn't catch what she said.

"N-nothing!" She nearly screeched out. "You just focus on the road, okay?" She oddly patted my shoulder.

Once the building was in sight, I noticed a group of girls already conversing near the broken statue. I actually had almost dismissed the entire incident yesterday as just a part of a dream, but whatever rubble of the statue that remained reminded me that it wasn't. Nevertheless, the girls didn't seem to notice me until they heard me breaking and parking my bike onto the solid foundation that held the statue.

"We're here!" Faith jumped off her seat and greeted everyone. "Sorry, we're late. Somebody was still too busy sleeping…" She narrowed her eyes and tried to sneak a glance at me.

"Ugh…" I ruffled through the back part of my hair and fit my other hand into my pocket.

"Don't worry about it!" Sunset Shimmer answered. "Come on! Take a seat!"

Faith knelt down onto the picnic blanket they had set out and relaxed her legs. She turned towards me and patted the area next to her before she turned back to Sunset Shimmer. "So, what do you have for us?" She asked as I sat at her designated spot.

"It's time I tell you guys everything that happened since you left CHS, Faith." She explained and took a sip out of her juice box. "And much more. Now that you've seen what kind of magic we have here, it won't be as hard to tell you."

"I'm still trying to process what happened _yesterday_." I mentioned as I rested a hand over my forehead.

"Just wait until you hear this!" Sunset excitedly chatted. "You see, there's this portal to another world, and from that other world, I—"

A bright glow appeared on the base of the statue, and then another girl suddenly flew out towards us. "I'm so sorry I didn't get here sooner! I didn't get your messages until just now because I was caught in this time travel loop and, honestly, it was the strangest thing that's ever happened to me!" She looked like she had more to say, but she immediately became silent once she noticed the girl in front of her.

For a second, I thought that this girl had been Twilight with a change of wardrobe, but then I remembered that Twilight had been with the girls before we even got here. When two of the girls stood in front of each other, my brain began to short-circuit. As if having prior knowledge of this before, _our_ Twilight managed to wave shyly at the other. For an utterly silent moment, all we could hear was the sound of Pinkie Pie slurping up her juice.

"Uh… Make that the _second_ strangest." This girl revised her last statement.

"Athena!" Someone else not from our group cried out, and we all turned to find yet another girl sitting on top of some other person's back. "I am not some horse you can just ride on like that!"

"But you are a horse, Alex." She innocently pointed out.

The guy who suffered underneath her looked at his hands and answered back. "Not anymore!"

She didn't move until she noticed all of us. It wasn't until she spotted Faith when she jumped up from shock and stared directly at her. "W-whoa! No way! I-Is that?!"

"I'm not staring into a mirror, am I?! What the heck?!" Faith cried out in shock.

The two didn't look as identical as Twilight and…the other Twilight look-a-like did. However, there were definitely major similarities. For one, they both had differentiating eyes, and both of their pairs were of the same color. That was _way_ too similar to ignore.

"If that's really the 'me' in this world, then that means the Alex in this world has to be around too!" Faith's look-a-like quickly scanned the crowd around her and paused at me to point an incriminating finger. "You! I haven't seen you before! What's your name?!"

"C-Chase?" I nearly stuttered.

"No way! You couldn't really be…"

"Can't be." The friend she called Alex stood up, brushed himself off, and looked at me. "He looks nothing like me."

"There's just something about you two!" She brought up. "After all, in the life before, you kind of had eyes like those… You can't ignore that." She turned back to me and glanced over at Faith. "You two! Are you siblings?!"

Faith and I turned towards each other before the both of us immediately shook our heads.

"Of course not!" I answered.

"No way hosay!" Faith simultaneously responded, almost as if it'd be an extremely embarrassing thing if we were. Thinking back on how close we were, it was probably a good thing that we weren't.

Sunset Shimmer had to end up explaining the entire situation with us. She mentioned that the Twilight that popped out was actually the Twilight from the other world she had referred to. As for the other two, when Sunset first met us together, she thought that we might have been those two from this world. However, she also realized that that wasn't exactly right. We would have pretty much looked exactly like each other, but we didn't. Faith's look-a-like, Athena, I believe, brought up something having to do with being born 'differently', but I found it hard to listen to everything we were told.

It took almost the entire day to hear the whole story about how Sunset Shimmer and Canterlot High got to where they were now. Hearing stuff about ponies being princes and princesses in some other world called Equestria, I was almost starting to feel lightheaded. It wasn't that I didn't believe Sunset Shimmer. It was just… _a lot_ to take in.

Right around when the sun began to set, Faith and I decided to start heading home. We needed some time to think about what we had just been told. However, on the way back, I noticed one of the favorite shops Faith and I liked to stop by for ice cream. I slowed down my pedaling and turned towards Faith over my shoulder.

"Hey, you want to stop and get some ice cream?" I asked.

"Oh! Now that you mention it, I could really go for some cookies and cream right now!" Faith chirped. As I began to park my bike near the store front, Faith pulled her phone out of her bag. "You want to invite Twilight? I'm sure she won't be too busy studying to hang out with us this time."

"Nah." I easily replied with as I locked my bike.

"What?! Really!?" Faith responded with shock, covering her mouth with her hand in the process. "But you were always looking for ways to bring her with us! Don't tell me you actually really _did_ give up on her?"

"What? No." I cocked my eyebrow and laughed. "It's just that it'll be cool with just the two of us."

"…just the two of us?" Faith seemed to think about as I grabbed the door and held it open for her.

"Yeah, come on."

The two of us sat at a nearby booth as we waited for our order to finish and be brought to us. Faith was being unusually quiet, and I noticed that she seemed to be shuffling around a bit uncomfortably.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"Y-yeah." A slightly nervous grin appeared on her face. "I was just pretty surprised when you just wanted it to be the two of us here."

"But it's always the two of us." I reminded.

"And for the first time, you had the chance to bring Twilight along and you didn't."

"Is that so bad?"

Faith shook her head. "It's not bad. I just wasn't expecting it. That's all." Her eyes roamed around the room for a moment as if she was trying to come up with another topic to engage on. "Hey, have you talked to Coco, lately?"

"Oh, yeah, I did…" I pulled out my phone and began to look through the conversation we had yesterday. "She actually texted me last night. At first, she wanted to know what had happened at the Friendship Games because she was getting a bunch of stories about it. She said she was stuck sick at home. I didn't know how to tell her. Instead, I told her that she'd have to see it to believe it, so I've been looking into sending her the footage I got. Besides all that stuff, I also told her that we were most likely going to transfer out of Crystal Prep to Canterlot High. She was surprised but mostly sad."

"Aww…" Faith expressed as her eyebrows drooped. "Poor Coco… Did you tell her that we'd still be down to hang out anytime she wanted?"

"Yeah, of course." I nodded. "Seeing as she's usually busy with designing dresses and stuff, she might not get the chance often. Either way, she'd let us know if she's free to do something."

Faith began to rest her cheek on the palm of her hand. "I'll sure miss Coco…" She paused to shift her eyes in thought. "We didn't get to talk a lot in school in the first place. I know it isn't really a good thing to begin with, but at least there wasn't exactly a _huge_ attachment between us. If we had talked all the time, it'd be harder to leave the school. That's for sure."

"Yeah…" I began absentmindedly swiping through my phone after reviewing Coco's messages until I came across a few unexpected names. "…huh?!"

"What?" Faith's head poked up in curiosity.

"Um…am I just seeing things…?" I began to turn the phone over to Faith. "Or are Sunny Flare, Sour Sweet, and _Sugarcoat_ on my phone contact list right now?"

Faith's eyes widened as she pulled the phone in for a closer look. "Whoa! Since when did you get their phone numbers?! Is this some kind of joke?!"

"I don't know!" I immediately responded. "I—" I paused when I began remembering back to the end of the Friendship Games.

 _Chill out. I left you something special. You better not delete it, or I swear I'll find you and hurt you._

Sunny Flare told me that right before she gave me back my phone and boarded the bus…

 _There. You're welcome. I even added a special surprise, just for you._

Then it was Sour Sweet… If the two of them actually put in their numbers, then how did I get Sugarcoat? I didn't even see her then!

 _I even added a special surprise, just for you._

Oh, that Sour Sweet… She was _trying_ to mess with me, wasn't she?

"Chase?" Faith called me out of my thoughts.

I released a heavy sigh while slumping down on my side of the booth. "Sunny Flare and Sour Sweet gave me their numbers right before they left back to Crystal Prep. I guess they figured I would end up transferring out of the school."

"And what about Sugarcoat?" She questioned.

"Sour Sweet added hers in for the lols." I explained bluntly.

"Psh." Faith giggled at the sound of that. "'lols.'"

"Seems like it worked." I noted after seeing Faith laugh. "I guess it's her idea of a joke. Whatever. I don't know if I'll ever text them, but I know I'll definitely stay away from Sugarcoat's."

"What? You got something against girls with glasses?" She jested as she leaned in forward, narrowed her eyes, and stretched out a mischievous smile. I assumed that part of that joke was a reference back to around when we first met.

"Hah hah." I dryly laughed as a response. However, my phone began to suddenly vibrate and ring. I looked at the screen and was fairly surprised to see that it was my sister. "Hello?" I picked up.

"H…g..ng?" I only heard certain words and sounds, but her reply was incoherent overall.

"What?" I repeated, placing a hand on the other side of my ear, but it didn't turn out to be any better. Due to the music being played inside of the shop, along with conversations from other people overlapping each other in the background, I decided I would take this call outside. "Hang on. I'll be right back." I told Faith and began stepping out. "Alright, what?" I said once I was completely outside.

" **Hello, little bro!** " Her voice nearly screeched because of both the sound quality of the call and her sudden raise in volume.

"Geez." I flinched as a reaction with my ear nearly ringing. "Hey, what's up?"

"I heard you're not going to Crystal Prep anymore. Did you finally just give up?"

"Did mom and dad tell you?" I asked. "No, I didn't just 'quit', I wasn't ever really _satisfied_ being there. Sure, being ahead whenever I go to university is pretty awesome, but sacrificing your high school life in order to slave away at the books? I thought I'd be able to deal with it during the first year, but I realized how irritating it was afterwards."

"Well, whatever you told mom and dad, they sound pretty 'disappointed'." She reminded me.

"Yeah, because they pushed me to go to Crystal Prep!" I almost shouted with full force of my vocal chords. "I hardly even had a say, but whatever. They're my parents. Nothing much I can do about it. It's not fair. You weren't even _qualified_ to go to Crystal Prep. Why the heck didn't they tell you anything when you were still in high school?"

"I don't know. I'm their favorite kid, I guess." She joked, but it definitely didn't make me feel any better. "Don't worry about it, Chase. They'll probably get over it with time."

"I'm not so sure about that…" I responded with worry as I pressed my back against the storefront wall. "It's not like I failed an exam or anything. If they're going to get over it at all, it probably won't be until I graduate or something."

"If they bother you so much about it at home, you can just stay over at your girlfriend's house, right? What's her name again?"

"It's Faith." I corrected her as a heated glow filled my cheeks. "And she's not my girlfriend…!"

"She might as well be. You two are like always with each other."

I sighed and squeezed the area between my eyes. "Whatever. Anyways, what did you call me for? Was it just to talk about how I'm leaving Crystal Prep?"

"Just wanted to say hi to my little brother! Can't a loving sister do that every once in a while?"

"Sure…" I took her words lightly.

"I gotta go somewhere in a bit, so I'll let you go now. You're probably with your girlfriend anyway. Say hi to Faith for me!"

I felt the need to correct her once again, but I figured it would be a waste of time since she didn't listen the first time. "Yeah, whatever. Talk to you later, Starlight."

I disconnected the call and dug the phone back in my pockets. I stood there for a moment and observed the semi-busy streets. After a short moment, I released a heavy sigh and walked back into the shop. I took my seat once I returned to our booth.

"What's up?" Faith asked.

"Just my sister." I answered half-heartedly. "She says hi."

"Hm…" Faith smiled softly. "Makes me wonder what it feels like to have a brother or sister."

"You think that now, but I'm pretty sure you'd get fed up with them." I honestly replied.

"If it makes you feel any better, our ice cream just got here not too long ago." She pointed towards the order that I had been too distracted to see. "Dig in!"

I allowed my mind to relax as I began to scoop up and chomp on the ice cream that was in front of me. However, it wasn't too long before someone brought us something unfamiliar to the table. It was one of those special drinks, punch or something, that was poured into a single large glass, and it's meant to be shared by two with two straws on opposite ends.

"Uh… We didn't or—"

"Thank you!" Faith oddly expressed with a heavy blush before the person nodded and walked away.

"Faith?" I searched her face for an answer.

"Yeah…I got us something to drink…" She responded with a sheepish grin as the redness in her cheeks began to expand further across her face.

"B…but this is for…couples…?" I felt my heartbeat accelerate.

"Well, we are a couple…" Faith answered. For what felt like a long minute, we sat there across each other in an absolute unnerving silence. "…a couple of best pals!" She awkwardly concluded.

Was that all supposed to be a joke? I don't understand you, Faith.

"Well, we're still going to have to share this…" I mentioned as I paid particular attention to the straws that had been wittily intertwined inside the glass.

"It's not like we haven't shared the same drink before." Faith reminded. "Don't be scared. I won't bite."

I assumed that she was just trying to mess with me, so I decided to stop bringing up the unexpected circumstance and just share the drink like a comfortable adult.

* * *

It was already pretty late once we had finished riding back. There was a little light left, but it was sure to disappear in no time. Faith jumped off her seat from behind me and lifted up her arms towards the sky for an enormous stretching break. "Mmm!" She moaned before taking a look at her driveway. "Aw. Come on, mom. It's the weekend."

Her mom's vehicle was missing, so all we could assume was that she was doing some overtime work or something.

"I'm sure she'll be back soon, Faith." I reassured. "She should definitely be home all day tomorrow."

"Oh, for sure." Faith turned towards me and smiled. "You want to keep me company until then?"

"Y-yeah, sure…" I felt a little uneasy for some reason this time when she asked me that.

After putting my bike away and walking inside with her to her room, she threw herself against her bed and immediately looked she was in the mood to fall straight asleep. Since she hadn't been wearing her Crystal Prep uniform, she didn't feel the need to change into anything new. I could tell, by the way she relaxed herself on her bed, that it was at home where she could relieve herself of her worries.

She searched through her bag on the side of the bed and pulled out both her phone and her earbuds. "Come on." She invited. "You want to listen to some music together?"

The idea of doing absolutely nothing but just listening to some soft music sounded good after the kind of week we've had. I was almost ready to accept that invitation at the first second she asked. "Don't mind me." I settled myself next to her on her bed. I wasn't totally sure, but in some way, her bed always felt a lot more comfortable than mine.

She placed one earbud into her left ear and held the other towards me. Once I snugly inserted it onto my right ear, she looked at her phone and swiped up a few times before she tapped her screen. I began hearing a nice instrumental of mainly just acoustic guitars. At that moment, the two of us stared at the ceiling in silence. Eventually, I felt a little drowsy and began closing my eyes.

"Don't freak out." I heard her say before something slipped into my hand. My eyes opened out of passive reaction, and I shifted them towards my hand to see it connected with Faith's. Her eyes had been closed as well, and I found that she had actually been smiling warmly. This definitely wasn't a first time, but for some reason, I felt a little embarrassed yet again. Nevertheless, I allowed my head to fall back on her pillow and closed my eyes.

Why did she have to go and call Faith my girlfriend? Seriously? It's nothing like that…

"Thank you for everything, Chase." She spoke once more. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

My jaw seemed to quiver a bit before I could answer. "Yeah… Same here…"

Her grip on my hand tightened, and this lasted for a while until it eventually loosened up a bit. Taking another glance at her face, her smile disappeared, and it seemed she had fallen asleep. I sighed lightly and decided I could follow in her footsteps.

With the new friends we made, with the broken relationships we've mended together, and with a new school to settle in, I could only wonder what was in store for us in the future. We were currently off, due to the weekend, but it'd be only a matter of time before summer vacation would come.

What will we be doing then, Faith?

An unsettling sound came from my phone, along with a momentary vibration. I almost jolted upwards from the bed and quickly reached into my pocket to pull out the troublesome device. I had received a text message from Sunset Shimmer. Wondering what it had been after what we had just came back from, I swiped open my screen and read the message.

 _A girl who's this crazy photographer snapped a lot of pictures from the Friendship Games. We took a look at them, and I decided to send you some you and Faith might be interested in seeing. I especially like this one ;)._

Sunset Shimmer had sent me a link to what appeared to be an online gallery, but there was _one_ specific photo she included in the text message itself. I nearly hesitantly swiped down and allowed the photo to load up on my screen. What I saw next sent jitters to my heart.

It was a photo of Faith and me after I had just rescued her from the motocross field. I had been obviously carrying her in my arms, and I honestly didn't even realize it until now about how embarrassing we might have looked. I couldn't help but get an image of a newlywed groom carrying his bride.

Nevertheless, in the photo, I looked extremely serious and maybe even furious. I remembered that I kind of was, but I was mostly filled with fear for Faith's life. I had been staring intently into her eyes as she returned the stare with a tear-ridden look. However, her eyes had been widened towards me as if I was her guardian angel or something.

Is it just me or do a lot of people seem to be getting the wrong idea? Sunset Shimmer with that winky face? What the heck is that supposed to mean? Seriously. Do a lot of people think that way with Faith and me?

Either way, I felt my face growing redder by the second the longer I looked at it. I had quickly shut off the screen, but then I embarrassingly turned it back on and poked it to download the picture. Afterwards, I shut it back off.


End file.
